


Into The Future

by SunAndMoon (LadyMorgaine)



Series: Vampires Before Christmas [3]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Play, Anal Sex, Come Inflation, Light Switching, M/M, Master/Pet, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:53:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 37,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22015927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyMorgaine/pseuds/SunAndMoon
Summary: Having proposed, Kwon Soonyoung wastes no time in marrying Lee Jihoon after their magical Christmas. Their marriage takes off, pulls others into the happiness that they share, and find out that one doesn't always need to choose between biological and found family.
Relationships: Boo Seungkwan/Chwe Hansol | Vernon, Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Yoon Jeonghan, Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Lee Seokmin | DK, Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Jihoon | Woozi, Wen Jun Hui | Jun/Xu Ming Hao | The8
Series: Vampires Before Christmas [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1580371
Comments: 31
Kudos: 247





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

>   * Quite a few people wanted a sequel, so here it is! One of the comments was that there was a lot of smut in the earlier parts (fair enough, the two oneshots were supposed to be smutty Christmas fic. This is more slice-of-life, leaning heavily to scenes occurring with the group after the last one-shot finished. 
>   * A small correction: in the last story I mistook something on my notes and gave Hansol to a wrong set of parents! I've tried to fix it retroactively. 
>   * This chapter jumps around a little re: timeframes. It'll settle down in the present in the next. 
> 


Year 3

Jihoon knelt on the SUV’s seat facing backwards, waving to Seungkwan as they pulled away from the manor, held secure by Soonyoung’s left hand in the small of his back. He watched until he couldn’t see him anymore, then sank down properly and did his safety belt, careful to check it. “I still don’t know if it’s a good idea to leave him alone,” he muttered, slender fingers playing with the belt as he frowned at the distant gate. “He’s just a soft baby.”

Soonyoung smiled, slowly making his way out of the property’s gate. The security guard waved at him, and he rolled down his window to shout ‘Happy Holidays’ through the open space. “He’ll be fine, and that baby is only a few years younger than you, Hoonie,” he said, closing the window and reaching to fiddle with the aircon to direct warm air his husband’s way. His Jihoonie was wrapped up like a winter bear, but it still paid not to court disaster. “And Hansol-ah will be there to watch over him as well. He’s not a fighter, but he’ll put anything down that threatens.”

Jihoon made an unhappy sound deep in his throat, augmenting it with an eyeroll. “Are you telling me you didn’t invite Hansol-ah up from the south just to see if you can play matchmaker, rather than get him a professional guard?” He pouted slowly. “If he damages a single hair on Seungkwanie’s head, no matter how much I like him he’s getting thumped.”

“So violent,” Soonyoung teased. “Where’s my soft, adorable husband now, hm? And so what? I’m not ashamed of it, they’d be really good together and Seungkwanie deserves someone that’ll worship the ground he walks on.” He glanced sideways, reaching for his husband’s hands with one hand. “Cheer up, Hoonie,” he said softly. “They’ll be fine together. We’ve got other things to worry about now, don’t we?”

Jihoon nibbled at his lip and squeezed his husband’s hands, one hand moving protectively over his belly had a flash of subdued wedding ring on it, and not for the first time he wondered how he was going to protect the little lives growing deep inside. Sighing, he nodded and cast his mind back to the early years of his marriage, trying to think how things had led to this point.

* * *

Year 1

It wasn’t a long engagement at all. Soonyoung had popped the question by Christmas, and in a whirlwind of activity they were deep in planning the next January already – he had introduced his parents to Soonyoung, who quickly turned out to be their new favourite thing. In fact, they were so in love with him that when he solemnly asked for their permission after a long, intricate explanation they had given it happily; when their soon-to-be son-in-law broached the topic of them moving from Busan to England to live close to them, his mother had had an attack of what looked like the raptures.

Some of his friends hadn’t been as delighted, but his heart-child, his Seungkwanie, had promptly skipped a day of school to take a taxi to him in Busan, and had insisted on being his man-of-honour. He had scolded him of course, but the Lee Jihoon that was disappointed in Boo Seungkwan didn’t exist, so he had just agreed, they had set a date and the ceremony had been _lovely_. It was Soonyoung that had insisted on a Korean one, though he clearly had doubted that wisdom when he saw Seungkwan fiercely barring him from Jihoon’s ‘house’ as he came asking for him, and Seungkwan had shed his soft demeanour to extort a vacation, a wedding gift _and_ a promise of good Seollal money before he let him through.

It hadn’t even been an onerous process to get him British citizenship. Money talked, and what it said was ‘Kwon Soonyoung wants his husband now so please say yes.’ He had gotten his permanent visa, since he was keeping Korean citizenship, and from there it had been a frenetic whirl until they settled back in at the manor in March. Jihoon had been ready to riot by then – he missed their afternoons in front of the fire – and had dragged him out of the mad whirl in London. Besides, who wanted to have sex in hotel rooms when they could have their own bed?

On the second day after their arrival back at the manor Jihoon plunked himself down on the settee with happy determination; his arms were full of guide books of the surrounding area that he could mark and plan a tour there. He barely noticed the hot chocolate settling at his elbow, but he noticed Soonyoung wiggling into his spot on the settee, draping Jihoon’s legs over his lap and gently patting his calves. “Happy now, Hoonie?” he asked mildly. “You have your couch back now, after all.”

Jihoon peeked up from his book and grinned over the edge. “Very happy, _Yeobo_ ,” he teased, just to see the happy smile spread on Soonyoung’s face. “Now I can finally complete that Lake District tour like I wanted. I want to see all of your estate still, and the Castlerigg circle, and…”

Soonyoung traced a pattern over his knee. “Our estate,” he corrected gently. “We’re married legally here, and I’ve had your name put on all the documents and bank accounts next to mine.”

Blinking, Jihoon hesitantly lowered the book to his lap. “You didn’t have to do that,” he murmured off-hand, but inside his chest his heart was filling and expanding with love, not so much for the wealth as the trust it betokened. “I didn’t marry you for your things.”

“I know you didn’t,” Soonyoung soothed. “But I wanted to. I also want to show you the estate myself if you don’t mind? It’ll only be a few more weeks until the snow is all gone, and we can get the winter stables to send some of the horses up here for us. You’ll love Gunsloe in the spring, and we can go and swim in Bassenthwaite Lake? There are also some new ospreys that’ve moved in, I need to go and check on them still.” He grimaced. “And the _hyungdeul_ have promised to skin my if I don’t bring you by.”

Jihoon cocked his head curiously. “Who’re they?”

Soonyoung reached to pull him close, lifting an arm so that Jihoon could shelter in the curve of his body. Unbidden, unhindered, his fingers drew little patterns over Jihoon’s outer thigh, along with the occasional foray out over the curve of his hip. “Remember the two male vampires I’ve told you about? The ones that have children? Seungcheol and Jeonghan live down Cheshire. They would have been at the wedding, but Jeonghan fell sick unexpectedly. Seungcheol didn’t want him to fly, in case it caused problems.”

Jihoon wiggled a little closer, turned just so that he could put his head on Soonyoung’s shoulder. “I had forgotten about them,” he admitted softly. “They’re the ones with our doctor Sophie for a daughter, right? Beyond them, are there any more vampires living here in the UK?”

Walking fingers in beneath the cashmere sweater Jihoon had on, Soonyoung slowly slipped them in beneath the leggings, just so that he could have smooth skin to caress. “I don’t think so,” he pondered. “Hansol’s parents left some time ago, since she loves being in Venice, and yeah. Sebastian and Sophie the twins, and their third is called Chan. He’s the baby of the family for the moment.”

Breath hitching – Soonyoung’s way-too-patient foreplay was something he had missed as well, Jihoon petted his husband’s tummy. “I’d like to meet them. I’d love a horseback tour as well, but I don’t ride, you know that. I wouldn’t even know a good horse from a bad one.”

Softly, thumb moving to draw little circles over the delicate skin along the bottom curve of just one cheek, Soonyoung gently snuck the other fingers into the fold between Jihoon’s buttocks. His husband felt soft and silky and powdered from his earlier shower, and if he was very lucky… ah! Jihoon’s tiny squeak let him know when he found the right spot on the perineum, so he started to stroke it gently. “I’ll teach you,” he promised. “We’ll have to go get you riding gear… sit still, kitten…and I’ll pick you a horse as well. You’ll love it. The one positive of such an old house is that there are tons of saddles in storage. It’d be easier to find your one your size.”

Jihoon pouted and canted his hand back to kiss Soonyoung’s jaw softly, relaxing into the touch. “Is this another excuse to shower clothes on me?” he asked suspiciously.

Laughing, Soonyoung danced his fingertips up to press gently against Jihoon’s small, sensitive pucker. No plug, no lube yet, so he retrieved his hand and waited for his kitten to suck his fingers wet before slowly starting to work him open. “Relax,” he whispered softly into Jihoon’s soft, satiny hair. “Relax, baby. If I want to shower clothes on you I shall.”

Jihoon’s little squeaks turned into soft moans; he knew better than to move, but relax he did until Soonyoung’s fingers worked their way deep inside him and settled like that. Happy – he loved the long afternoons of being gently fingered – he turned his head to the fire, sweaterpaws letting the book fall to curl into Soonyoung’s shirt. “Youngie,” he murmured through the pleasure, voice scratchy-soft and deeper from his arousal. “You know I love you, right? So much.”

Soonyoung concentrated on the slow, scissoring motions of his fingertips until he shifted them just a little, just enough to land his index finger on the soft, spongy spot inside that Jihoon’s prostate sheltered behind. He tapped it gently a few times, just enough to make his kitten wriggle with pleasure. “I know,” he said, catching Jihoon’s pouty, soft lips for a kiss. “I love you too. Whatever you want, okay?”

_I want to talk to Jeonghan, find out how he did it,_ Jihoon thought through the haze of pleasure. _I saw you with that kid at the wedding, Yeobo, you danced her all around._

Out loud, slowly working his ass onto Soonyoung’s fingers, he nudged him against the stomach. “There was one thing I wanted. Give me your phone? I’ll show you.”

Soonyoung blinked down at his husband – Jihoon asking for something was _rare_ – he hauled it out of his pocket and gave it to his husband.

Jihoon took the phone and shifted his position, choosing to rest over Soonyoung’s knees on his torso so that he could brace his elbows on the other side. The shift slipped Soonyoung’s fingers in deeper, which surprised a huff of pleasure from him, but he had been seasoned by time and practice; it wasn’t enough to do more but warm him yet. Unlocking the phone he poked around the internet until he found it, and enlarged the picture to show his husband.

Soonyoung’s fingers stilled as he boggled down at the picture. It looked like a lacy choker made of cream satin and black lace with a big black bow in the front, which sported a bell on it. A bespoke choker, a bespoke _pet play_ choker, and for a moment he could imagine Jihoon’s fragile, delicate throat ringed with it, complete with black kitten ears and a fluffy black tail.

“It’s almost Valentine’s Day,” Jihoon said insouciantly. “You’ll have to hop to get it here, but if you do, I’ll give you a nice present.”

“Buy it,” Soonyoung’s voice cracked, heavy with lust. “Buy it, have it expedited, _yes_ …” His hand stared moving again, fucking the delicate rim until it started to look puffy and his kitten was mewling with need. “God yes.”

“Ahhh… Youngie!” Jihoon cried as the fire deep inside him flared higher from the sudden savage finger-fucking. “God, please _please_ , I can’t concentrate when you do that!” His fingers turned clumsy on the phone, and fell entirely when Soonyoung raked the sweater up his back, pulled up his ass and started to eat him out with quick, desperate licks. “Yes, yes, yeeeees!”

They were home again, he was right where he belonged, and his husband was eating him out as if he didn’t have him for lunch and supper every day – Lee Jihoon couldn’t be happier about his life.

* * *

Year 2

“…and of course, Jihoonie, when Soonyoung told us that he was planning on marrying you I was so happy!” Jeonghan said, eyes bright. “I wanted to sulk so much when Seungcheol put his foot down on us visiting, but he didn’t want to relent when I got sick. You forgive me, right?”

Jihoon smiled as he curled back into the comfortable chair. Despite wanting to visit for a year, it had only materialised now, almost eleven months after the first.

It was the second day of their visit to Siddeley Park; he had met the family yesterday, from stoic Sebastian to sulky Chan, and it wasn’t until just a little earlier that he managed to escape from Seungcheol’s desire to show them around to have a chat with his husband. Yoon Jeonghan was radiant, slightly long black hair a froth of curls, and barring Soonyoung and Seungkwanie, Jihoon had never grown so fond of someone so quickly. “It’s okay,” he said softly. “I’m actually glad we could talk like this, just the two of us, there wouldn’t have been a chance at the wedding.”

“Oh?” Jeonghan said, eyebrows arching impishly. “It’s not about the birds and the bees is it, Jihoonie? From the way you were limping when you came down to breakfast this morning, you don’t need that talk!” His laughter sounded happy and loud, brown eyes very merry.

Jihoon’s cheeks promptly coloured. “It wasn’t my idea!” he said hastily. “Soonyoung just… um. He wasn’t happy that I had paid more attention to you lot than himself yesterday.” Thinking back of the spanking that had gotten him, especially when he told him to stop acting like a bastard, still made him feel weak. The sex afterwards had been _fantastic_ though. Just… “Please tell me you didn’t hear a thing,” he begged.

Jeonghan’s lips twitched. “Did we?” he said idly, tapping a manicured fingertip against his lips. “I can’t recall…”

“ _Hyung_!” Jihoon complained, feeling redder than a tomato.

Laughing again, Jeonghan waved a hand. “Relax, we didn’t hear a thing. The only people you might have frightened is whatever bird slept outside your window, and they’ve not complained yet. What is it that you wanted to talk about?”

Ears pink, Jihoon dropped his gaze, but soon lifted it again if only to stare at Jeonghan’s obviously pregnant form. The elder was in the last stages of it and very round; he didn’t think Seungcheol had taken his hand off his husband’s belly once since yesterday, except to allow them to talk. “It’s about kids,” he admitted quietly. “I want some too, and I think Soonyoung does too, and since I don’t think his body can change that much…” He bit at his lip. “How did you do it?”

Jeonghan’s expression gentled, turning serious. “Well,” he said, dropping his hands to support the full curve as he shifted. “I shan’t tease more and tell you about the sex. We’ve been together for almost four hundred years now, though, and I began drinking his blood very early in our relationship. Not for the benefits, you understand, but because the average age of death was so low back then. Disease, birth defects, lack of hygiene and education… had I lived a normal life back then, I would have been old by thirty and dead by forty.”

Jihoon winced; Jeonghan looked as if he was no more than a very youthful twenty. “So old?” he asked softly. “And it took you so long? Wow.”

Jeonghan sighed. “I knew Seungcheol was it for me when I saw him,” he added. “But I had grown up malnourished and ill, and there was _so much_ for the blood to fix that it took a very long time. Added to that, we didn’t have any idea how it worked. It’s only now that we have Sophie that we understand it a bit better. It took two hundred years, more or less, but most of that was running away from religion and persecution and finding a safe place. It was only when we moved in here that I _really_ started trying. That I had the food and the nutrients and the safety that my body needed to start that change.”

Biting his lip, Jihoon tried very hard not to cry. “It must have been so difficult,” he got out, throat thick.

Jeonghan considered him before he shifted aside on the sofa, patting the space next to him. “Come over here?”

Jihoon went, curling up like a kitten against Jeonghan without fear; drooping his head, he placed his ear on the top curve of Jeonghan’s belly to listen, sighing softly as the other started petting his hair.

“It was very difficult,” Jeonghan said above him as he petted and combed his fingers through Jihoon’s hair. “Things don’t turn out as you think it should, and some of the changes are strange. There are a couple of things you have to keep in mind. You’ll have to drink his blood constantly, and you’ll have to be the very healthiest that you can be. You’ll have to start taking supplements, and if you work out that’ll be good. Even then it’s as much a psychological thing as a physical thing. It’ll only happen when _you_ feel ready for it in your heart, no matter how much you wish for it.”

Jihoon listened intently; he could hear Jeonghan’s heartbeat but there were two faster sounds in there as well, beating almost as fast as a hummingbird. “You’re having twins?” he asked softly as he listened to the explanation. “And I guess I understand… is that why Soonyoung loves to feed me so much? Sometimes I’m convinced he’d carry me around everywhere if I allowed him.”

Jeonghan laughed at that. “It’s instinct. They’re so long-lived and strong that we blink past at times, so when they finally connect with someone, they try to keep them safe and fed and loved to try and keep us closer. It’s actually quite fascinating, sociologically speaking. I’m doing a PhD in the subject at the moment, and it’s amazing to figure out how it works. You said that Soonyoung was irritated because you didn’t spend enough time with him yesterday?”

Jihoon mumbled an affirmative, too entranced by the tiny, fast heartbeats to listen much.

“I remember once, when we were on a train journey across Europe to Moscow, Seungcheol got so angry that someone had complimented my hair and I blushed that we didn’t leave our cabin for five days. He screwed me until I couldn’t see straight, simply because he wanted to cement his place in my life as my number one. Silly bastard.” Jeonghan reached to pinch Jihoon’s ear. “Are you listening? I think if you really want to do this, the best thing will be to visit Sophie as quickly as possible. She can’t definitely make it happen, but she can get your body in the very best state it needs to be.”

“I will,” Jihoon promised, wrapping his arm around Jeonghan’s belly to curl even closer. “And I can practice with these two, right?”

“And with Channie, I give you permission to bully him into it.”

Jihoon giggled at that, thinking of the youngest of the brood that desperately wanted to be grown up, but was very much a sulky teenager still. “Are these going to be your last two?”

Jihoon laughed again. “Are you serious? No, I want a lot of kids. I was born into a family of thirteen kids, I want at least that many. As many as Seungcheol will give me, though the births seem to spread themselves out to once a century.” One hand lifted and came down on Jihoon’s head. “Speaking of him, Seungcheol is calling for me. Go and practice with that husband of yours, okay?” It was awkward, but he leant down to press a kiss on Jihoon’s head, and held his cheek out for one as well as Jihoon reluctantly stood. “And don’t worry if you’re loud!” he yelled afterwards.

Jihoon fled, mortified and platonically in love and curious as he sought Soonyoung out for practice time.

* * *

Year 1

When Jihoon woke bright and early on Valentine’s Day, he stretched out slowly, enjoying the rare feeling of an empty bed around him. Soonyoung had been in London for the past week, dealing with business, and for once Jihoon hadn’t minded being separated from him. It made certain preparations much easier to bear without his husband around to tease him, and he had purposefully not played with himself for much of the week.

He felt his skin as he stood and murmured with approval. The spa visit yesterday had gotten him exfoliated and massaged; his skin felt so soft and silky-smooth at the moment that he barely thought the pills he was on were needed.

Jeonghan’s daughter Sophie had run him through an extensive battery of tests the first time he had visited her, and she had had a lot to say about his nutrition before Soonyoung had gotten a hold of him. He had emerged with a set of instructions as long as his arm, an array of boosters and vitamins and nutrient compounds that he had to take every morning without fail. They had finally kicked in a little bit ago: his nails were growing so fast he had had to get them manicured down to a reasonable length, and his hair was already shaggy again from the cut he had gotten last month. Likewise his skin was the healthiest he had ever seen; the spa’s technician had tutted over it and bemoaned the fact that hers didn’t look like that.

Meandering into the shower, he took his pills, showered and moisturised before pulling on one of Soonyoung’s old shirts. The box had been beneath the bed a few days now, and he hauled it out to lift the collar from it, swallowing at the sheer artistry. The cream silk was very heavy and rich and soft, and the full swags of black lace elevated it from pretty to beautiful. The bow was so pretty as well, and he had had the artist add a small disc of silver between the bell and the bow, so that the bell simply hung a little lower. The disc was hand-engraved, bearing a simple ‘Hoonie’ on the front, and an ‘Owner: Soonyoung. Call if found’ and their phone number here.

It made him feel soft and squishy inside, and his fingers trembled as he slowly linked it around his throat before looking at the mirror with a gnawed lower lip. Putting his black ears on made him feel a little better about it now that his hair was back to black as well; he’d deal with prepping himself and the tail and special jewellery later on.

Hours later, with a fire stoked and his prepping done, he lay on the carpet in front of the fire on his belly, legs kicking in the air every so often as he browsed on his phone. His tail, full and fluffy black, made him shiver as it brushed against his buttocks, and the intricate little nipple rings caught against the nap of the carpet every so often, shooting dizzying little bolts of pleasure down his spine. Just lazing there felt so good that he almost took a nap right there; if it hadn’t been for the door of the SUV sounding distantly and Soonyoung’s footsteps nearing, he would have.

“Jihoonie?” Soonyoung called as he entered the manor. “I’m home! Where are you?”

“In here!” he called back, not bothering to yell. Putting his phone aside, he kicked his feet into the air again, small feet waving there as he propped his chin up on his hands.

Soonyoung opened the door, large gift under his arm, and stuttered to a stop as he looked at his husband, eyes slowly widening from their feline slant.

Jihoon slowly lifted to his knees and hands, then slipped to kneel on the settee, perching over one arm. “Master’s back!” he said happily, reaching out one hand as he pouted. “Hoonie missed him so much, it’s been so long…”

The gift thudded to the ground as Soonyoung stumbled closer, throat working as he swallowed. He reached out a hand, fondling over the faux ears as Jihoon did his best to purr and butt his hand into the large palm.

Soonyoung had to swallow again. “You really missed me, Hoonie?” he asked softly, sounding reverent. “I’m happy to see you too, baby, it’s been so long since I had my little kitty.”

Jihoon nearly laughed; it wasn’t an element in their sex life often, just for special occasions, but the look on Soonyoung’s face was absolutely worth it. He stretched up, clinging to Soonyoung’s shirt with little handfuls of material, until he had enough height to pout his lips. “Kisses,” he demanded hungrily. “Hoonie wants lots of kisses.”

Leaning down, Soonyoung gave him little butterfly-kisses on his pursed lips, so many that Jihoon giggled at the onslaught; they only turned serious moments later, when Soonyoung tapped at Jihoon’s jaw to ask for an open mouth, and slipped his tongue inside to kiss him properly. Jihoon groaned and suckled on Soonyoung’s tongue, hunting for the faint, sweet taste that was Soonyoung’s blood. He reached up more, enough to get leverage to wrap his legs around Soonyoung’s waist so that he could cling to him as his husband sat down.

Soonyoung only pulled back when Jihoon was dizzy from the need for air, steadying him with his hands on his hips. “What a pretty collar,” he praised; his eyebrows narrowed at the inscription but he smiled as he flipped it around to see his name and phone number. “How does it feel?” he asked, examining the fragile material gently. “It’s not too tight, right?” More kisses, this time to the pale swell of Jihoon’s throat just above the collar. “So pretty, baby. Happy Valentine’s day.”

Jihoon wriggled on his lap, happy; he could feel Soonyoung stiffening in his pants from how much he approved, and the pleasure transmitted to him too. “I picked it out myself and had it customised,” he boasted before nibbling on his kiss-swollen lower lip. “Happy Valentine’s Day. You really think I look pretty in it?”

Soonyoung murmured his approval as large hands massaged gently from Jihoon’s shoulderblades to his ass, then down his sleek legs. “I do,” he admitted. “You look so dainty and soft and lovely, I don’t know what to say really.” He pecked a kiss on Jihoon’s nose, laughing softly at the three whisker-lines he had drawn on with black eyeliner. “And I see you put your tail in yourself as well, did you prep yourself properly?”

Cheeks stinging with embarrassment, Jihoon sat back and nodded. “I did,” he admitted softly. “And I put the rings on myself, but it didn’t feel as… as nice as when you do it.”

“Hm?” Soonyoung wondered, looking down at the simple piercings that rested on Jihoon’s lean chest. Gold this time, adorned with very tiny specks of what looked like black stones – the black diamond set he had bought him because they were just large enough to fit the tip of his pinkies for easy plucking. He held up his hand and Jihoon’s small tongue came to wet his thumb and index finger submissively; nodding in appreciation, he reached to rub the wetness into one delicate pink nipple until it shone, then pinched gently at it.

Jihoon’s head drooped backwards and a small gasp of appreciation escaped him; the touch was so delicate and gentle it felt like the sweetest rush deep in his belly before Soonyoung’s thumb gently rubbed at it in circles until it stood up. In the next moment, he moaned again as Soonyoung nicked one of his own thumbs on a fang, then popped the bloody digit into his mouth. He sucked on it like a baby, eyes fluttering shut, until he felt the flash-fire of vampiric blood start burning in his belly. “Youngie,” he moaned around the digit.

Soonyoung arched an eyebrow at him, removing the thumb. “What was that?”

“Master,” Jihoon mumbled. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, kitty,” Soonyoung said, hooking his chin onto Jihoon’s shoulder as he reached to test the tail.

One soft yank, then a second; they were much too mild to hurt him, and he drooped forward from the sparking pleasure as Soonyoung cupped each half of his butt apart from the other to inspect his stretched, puffy little hole. His thumbs felt so _good_ probing the stretched flesh that Jihoon panted as he held still.

Soonyoung’s hands left him, but the smile on his face reassured him.

“You did so well,” Soonyoung praised; sitting back, he pulled Jihoon back with him, and ghosted fingertips up and down his spine as he thought back. “We got that contract for the factories,” he explained. “I had to talk a little fast, but the farmers will be happy with the price at least, especially with the new regulations on the farming areas here.” He craned his neck to press a kiss against Jihoon’s temple. “What happened here?”

As much as Jihoon loved the sexual side of their relationship, it was moments like these he treasured most; curling in underneath Soonyoung’s chin, he blurrily considered the pattern of the jacket he still had on. “I managed to complete that song I had been working on and I recorded a guide track for it, and I had a look at the ledgers like I asked you?” He sighed, reaching behind him to trap one of Soonyoung’s hands so he could kiss his fingertips. “We’re definitely going to need to get experts in, and the man that came to look at the roof suggested we’ll have to think about repairing it in a year or two.” Softer, a little quieter, “I started taking some supplements from Sophie.”

Soonyoung frowned at the fire over his head, reaching to cant him away so that they could see eye-to-eye. “Why?” he asked curiously. “Is something wrong? Are you ill?”

Jihoon’s mouth spread wide with mirth. “It’s not that! No. I just… when we last visited Siddeley I had a chat with Jeonghan- _hyung_ and I thought… I thought we might try for kids?” He bit his lip, pensive, and reached to comb his fingers through Soonyoung’s hair. “If that’s okay with you?”

Of all the responses, he hadn’t expected the arms that lashed around him quite so fiercely, nor the suddenly tear-wet eyes his husband pressed into his shoulders. The vampire, normally so strong, jerked with the force of his tears, and his speaking devolved into a slurry of syllables that sounded ancient. _Middle English,_ he remembered after a moment’s wonder. _He spoke it once with the hyungdeul._ Reassured, he remained as he was, gently combing his fingertips through his husband’s hair to calm him down.

Soonyoung stayed there for long minutes; when his face pulled away his face (and Jihoon’s shoulder) were pink with tears. “You mean it?” he insisted, eyes blazing. “Do you mean that?”

“Soonyoung,” Jihoon said patiently, heart pinching with the fondness he felt. “I had to sit through a consultation of seven hours. _Seven hours_. I drink a handful of pills every morning, just to make sure that I’m healthy enough to even consider it, and don’t even mention that highly embarrassing questionnaire I had to sit through on our sex life. _Yes_ , I mean it. Seungkwanie’s always going to be my baby, as much as I’m only a few years older, but I want one of my own too. Maybe two?” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “We’ll have to practice lots. I want to beat the _hyungdeul_ s’ record by at least a century, if not more.”

Seeing Kwon Soonyoung’s face transform like that was like watching a miracle be granted; Jihoon could see the love deep in his eyes, but on the outside he only wiggled his brows. “How about we try and practice some then, kitten?”

Jihoon grinned and reached to undo Soonyoung’s shirt buttons with quick, impatient swipes. “Bring it,” he teased.

* * *

Year 2

Time passed from the depths of winter into spring; Jihoon felt his moods shift with the turning of the weather as he got to know his husband well. They had married quickly, barely three months into their acquaintance, but each day he woke up and thanked God, nature and everything else that might have conspired to drive him to Gunsloe – even the goat. Alongside the supplements he drank, the greater intake of vampiric blood had him the healthiest he had ever been in his life. He could run faster, jump just a little higher, and wasn’t out of breath making a circle of the closest formal garden anymore.

Their first argument came and went; predictably he had to rein Soonyoung in from trying to purchase all the baby things in the world _immediately_. He spent an hour moaning about it to Jeonghan on the phone, who laughed and laughed at him, but that night they had makeup sex for the first time, and it had been _glorious_.

Now, in the midst of a really expensive shop in Kensington, filled with what looked like people from that suit-making scene from Kingsman and a large sign saying that the company had the Queen’s approval somehow, Jihoon felt distinctly out of his depth. He was at least a head shorter than most of the people in the shop, and there was such a dizzying array of options that he didn’t know what to pick. Soonyoung, in the normal kind of rapture when Jihoon let him buy him something, was off in the depths of the shop with what looked like the manager.

Jihoon, on the other hand, was left standing in a waiting room staffed by an amiable older gentleman who, if it had not been for his warm greeting and genial behaviour, he would have admired his native command of upper-class resting bitch face. The man’s eyebrows were just slightly arched in that way that suggested he (and his not inconsiderable expertise) was entirely at Jihoon’s disposal for as long as they chose to have the stare-off.

Jihoon cleared his throat uncomfortably before nervously scooting closer, keeping an eye out for his way-too-excitable husband. “Look,” he said, voice low and soft from acute embarrassment. “I really have no idea what I’m doing here. My husband dragged me here, I’ve never been on a horse in my _life_ and I’d really like not to make a fool out of myself. All I know is that I’ve got to pick some riding clothes, and I have no idea how.”

The man’s eyebrows lowered a bit and his smile shrank, but became a little warmer. “Is sir planning on going hunting, on riding in competitions, or just riding in general?”

Jihoon’s nose-wrinkle came before he could stop it. “No competitions,” he said immediately. “No thank you. And no, um… hunting, right? Yeah, no thanks. Just general riding, he wants to show me the estate.” It had blown his mind to realise that along with the manor came five hundred hectares of ground, awarded by some kind because Soonyoung had done him a favour. “I can just try whatever you have on the rack, if you have stuff ready-made.”

“Oh no!” the man said. “No, sir is a unique build. Step in here, and we’ll start measuring.”

Sighing, Jihoon complied with as much grace as he was capable of drumming up.

Two weeks later, with a special rush fitting in the middle, Jihoon made his way across the yard at Soonyoung’s side, dressed in riding jacket and cream-coloured breeches that clung to him like a second skin. Most of them were covered up by stiff riding boots, but even those felt comfortable, tailored as they were to fit his dimensions exactly.

The stables on the estate had no horses, that he had known for some time; Soonyoung’s horses were off in the south of England somewhere, lodged at a master trainer’s stables. Regardless, things had built up over the centuries, and whilst one part had been converted into a garage for a couple of cards, the vast majority of the stables was a warren of old tack, saddles, assorted riding bits and bobs; from the look of things it served as an auxiliary storage room for stuff not valuable enough to store in the vaults beneath the house.

He paused on the edge of the large structure as Soonyoung pulled open the outside door, nose wrinkling with the desire to sneeze. “Youngie,” he said with a hint of reproof, hands crossing over his chest. “This is a _mess_.” There was a small space in the front and an aisle leading into dusty reaches, but most of the structure was filled with dusty boxes and odd shapes under protective cloth. Wandering inside, he peered right and left, then shook his head. “It’s a good thing Seungkwanie can’t see this, he’d have a conniption.”

Soonyoung shot him a bright, uncaring smile over his shoulder. “He deserves it for not giving you to me immediately at the wedding!” he hollered down the aisle as he disappeared into the depths. “Let me pull a couple of saddles out, we’ll see what’s in here before we order one for you!”

Jihoon rolled his eyes and wandered off to lean against something that looked like an overgrown stepladder. It squeaked and left a line of grey dust against his jacket; grimacing, he straightened and tried to brush it off the dark brown fabric. “This is crazy,” he muttered underneath his breath, wiggling to get it straight before dragging the stupid little hat off his head. “I could have learnt with jeans!” he called after his husband.

Similarly dusty, Soonyoung emerged again, carrying five saddles stacked up on each other as if they weighed nothing. The first, still gloriously clean and impeccably oiled, he set to the side. “That’s my one,” he said proudly. “And _no_ you can’t learn in jeans, you’d be one big friction burn, Jihoonie.” Plunking the saddles down, he dragged what looked like a large saddle rest closer, hanging them all on it before starting to wipe them clean.

Jihoon wandered closer and accepted a leg up and over; it felt really strange, and he looked at Soonyoung with doubt in his eyes.

“It’s okay,” Soonyoung said softly. “This is just for trail riding, you’re not going to be in dressage competitions. Firstly, sit up straight, okay? As straight as you can, and balance yourself out on it.” He reached to help, patting and stomach and lower back to help his husband into the correct position. “Like that, but sink a little lower down in it, okay?” A smile lurked into being as he swung a leg over the saddle rest behind Jihoon, reaching to anchor his hips. “Imagine you’re riding me, okay? Balanced, but sink down.”

Jihoon let out a gargling sound, ears flushing pink with embarrassment, and reached behind try and smack his husband. All it earned him was another delighted laugh and pressure against his hips, until he sighed, wiggled and relaxed into the position, straddling it comfortably. “Like so?” he asked softly.

Soonyoung’s voice sounded husky as he answered. “Yes,” he muttered; it sounded as if he leant to one side to reach for something, but his hands were soon back on Jihoon’s waist, and this time they helped him over to the next one, pulling the previous saddle off to let it droop to the ground on one side. “A little too large. Fold the back of your jacket up.”

Blushing, Jihoon reached to pull it off instead with a grimace, tossing it to land over the front of the saddle rest. “It’s too hot for it anyway,” he muttered, and moved to straddle the saddle properly, parting his legs slowly. Seconds later, as a fluttery, mildly stinging _something_ touched his left hip, he straightened with an “Oh!” of surprise; he instinctively slipped away from it into a position that had Soonyoung murmur with appreciation behind him. Back almost ramrod-straight, hands clasped on the pommel, he tried to settle. “Like this?”

“Better, Jihoonie,” Soonyoung murmured. “Always sit balanced on the saddle, otherwise the poor horse will suffer. Do you feel how settled you are in there?”

This time the fluttery touch didn’t sting, but ran in an arch from one side over the crest of his ass to the other side. He bit his lip and moved to peek behind him, but that earned another of the soft, stinging flicks against his rump, and he hastily settled back into position, heart beginning to race. “Soonyoung?” he asked, voice almost cracking with the third such flick; none of them _hurt_ per se, but the material was so fitted he could feel every whisper of whatever it was, and he’d be a liar if he said he hated the feeling.

Something soft traced up over the indent of his spine from the nape of his neck to the split of his legs. “You have such good posture normally, Jihoonie,” Soonyoung said throatily. You remember what it feels like to be on top of me?”

Jihoon bit his lip and nodded, hands tight around the pommel. “I do,” he admitted.

Though he would have sworn the fabric had no give to it, it was that right, Jihoon felt fingers tuck into the top of his breeches and tug them down; he had to straighten a little for it, and his tilted feet barely touched the ground even so, only the tops of his toes scuffing against it as the waistband was tucked beneath his ass. His cheeks were pink as he tried to ignore the pleased, almost inaudible hum behind him. It was the feathery stroking motion of something leathery over his ass that spurred him into motion; the “Ahhhh” that came sounded deep and throaty. “Youngie, is this how you always teach people to ride?” he asked, trying to tease through his acute embarrassment.

Another little flick, this time a tad more stinging, before whatever it was trailed slowly down his crack to nestle between the perky curves. “Only the very special ones,” Soonyoung teased back and placed a hand in the small of Jihoon’s back. “When you ride, you need to go with the flow of the horse, and that comes from here. Cant just a tiny bit forward.”

Jihoon did as ordered, pinching his eyes shut. He felt open and exposed in the best way, almost powerless; with his feet barely touching the ground the only grounding point he had was the saddle beneath him, and he knew if he leant forward even a tad he’d flash Soonyoung. Pondering took too much time; another little stinging swat came, this time to each cheek in succession. “Ah!” he emitted, hips raising as he leant forward a little bit.

Soonyoung’s hand on his back gentled the embarrassment in him with smooth strokes back and forth. “That’s it,” he whispered. “Move for me, baby. Slowly back and forth, just rock a little bit, okay?”

It was difficult, but it felt _good_ ; Jihoon felt the muscles in his thighs clench against the saddle as he essayed a hesitant rock forward and back; on the back stroke something tickled down his crack in little fluttery motions, until it came to rest on his tight little hole. It gave one tap there, precisely one, and his body jerked with the pleasure, automatically surging forward to grind his stiffening cock into the saddle.

“Back,” Soonyoung ordered.

Jihoon’s hips surrendered and he rocked back; whatever Soonyoung had in his hand corrected his position and balance with little taps to his butt each time he fell out of alignment. Each time he got it right he earned a tiny little swat over his rim, not enough to pain but enough to prickle all the nerves there to wakefulness. He started to work for them, trying hard to remain on course, as his breath grew short and his heart raced with sheer arousal. One hand on his back nudged him even further forward; the tiny little swats came faster and faster to encourage him to speed up, muscles trembling jerkily down his legs.

His hands reached from the pommel to settle on the saddle rest for more leverage, but he jerked them back hurriedly when a sudden, stinging smack came across his ass from what felt like a switch. “Youngie!” he called, voice cracking with need, moving without any mental resistance to follow the wordless commands his husband gave. “Please, please!”

Soonyoung’s hm sounded remote. “Please what, Jihoonie?” he asked. “You know you have to ask clearly, I thought we taught you that lesson already.” The switch dawdled over the tiny pucker, moving down to rub insistently at the soft spot behind Jihoon’s balls. “Do I need to teach you again?”

Jihoon whimpered needily, caught between canting his hips back for more pressure and grinding his erection into the saddle in front of him. “Please!” he begged, so absurdly sensitive from the morning’s feeding that he felt like one gigantic ball of pleasure. “Please fuck me! I want to feel your cock in me!”

Laughing throatily, Soonyoung cupped his husband’s ass slowly, pulling his hips up a little more for the perfect display. Like this, Jihoon was a piece of art; blushing skin, frantic motions and needily whining for touches. “I’ll make you a deal, baby,” he said. “If you can come untouched just from me spanking your pretty, puffy little hole, I’ll give you my cock. If you’re my good boy and do it more than once, I’ll take you however you want, okay?”

“Hard,” Jihoon grunted out, waist dropping to cant his hips upwards; the entire situation felt filthy but so arousing he was already hard, dribbling precum. “If you have…”

“Don’t worry,” Soonyoung soothed, reading his mind; digging in a pocket of his coat he pulled out a small bottle, reaching to put it on the saddle rest in front of Jihoon.

Jihoon’s eyes widened at the sight of the bottle; even through his arousal he felt a wash of heat shift through him when he recognised it as the lube he preferred. He opened his mouth to ask how long Soonyoung had it on him but howled with pleasure instead as the tip of the switch hit with a gentle kiss on his pucker. “Ah!” His hips swung into motion without conscious thought, and he frantically started to work for his pleasure.

He wasn’t sure how long it lasted: sometimes long moments past without a touch, then a small flurry of them hit his fluttering rim almost at once, causing him to spasm and shout with pleasure. Not all were the same strength either. He learnt to cherish the infrequent taps that stung brightly at him more than the ones barely a whisper against his skin; sweat beaded along his hairline the once the tiny smack coincided just perfectly to land slightly inside his fluttering hole. His mind was a maze of pleasure, flooded with proud, aroused imagery from Soonyoung; he could _see_ his ass turn a very delicate pink, could feel that Soonyoung held a savage clamp on his own arousal for Jihoon’s sake.

The first climax flowered through him like lava as he moaned and whined, saddle turning slick in front of him from his cum. It didn’t stop him; instead, he worked harder with that pleasure honey-bright through his limbs. There was the occasional rest as Soonyoung caressed him gently and lovingly, seemingly knowing when his thighs couldn’t take any more. It was Jihoon that begged for more, voice and body and motion, until a firm smack of one hand on his ass stilled him. He gasped for air, trembling on the precipice of another gut-wrenching climax as his husband started to prepare him.

His ass felt like fire as something slim penetrated him. It felt thinner than a finger and unyielding as it pushed the lube deeper and deeper into him; for a moment he wondered whether Soonyoung was a witch stirring the cauldron deep inside his body with a wand, and whined with embarrassment as he heard his delighted laugh.

“Do you like it?” Soonyoung asked, fucking him in slow, twirling motions with the handle of the switch. Once, tilting his head to judge the angle, he raked it slowly up and down, pressing into the anterior wall, and laughed again when Jihoon shouted and quivered from the pressure of it pressing into his prostate. “C’mon baby, work for it. Back and forth.”

Gritting his teeth, Jihoon fell into the slow, drugging pace of grinding against the saddle again, fucking himself back onto the switch. The lubricant heated in him, turning him slick and squelchy; each time he surged back it slid over his prostate and made him whimper. Faster and faster he went, so close he saw stars behind his eyes before the angle changed again and the intense pressure went away.

Soonyoung stretched him like that, fingers widening him around the switch’s thin handle, until the tiny little hole was slick and wet and fluttering needily. He didn’t waste time; instead, reaching to lock his fingers in Jihoon’s hair, he pulled his legs up as he yanked his pants down just enough to free his massive arousal. He pulled Jihoon’s head back, tilting him into a tight arch, as he smoothly slammed his cock back into his home, plunging all the way inside in one smooth stroke to his balls.

Jihoon lost the voice to scream; the ramming stroke was enough to push him over the edge and into freefall; for seconds there he lost coherence, concentrating only on the thick length that stretch him to his maximum, muscles clenching to pull him in deeper and deeper. He knew Soonyoung was in a few mood; seconds later he pulled out only to piston back inside, thrust half-lifting him from the saddle.

Soonyoung leant to kiss at Jihoon’s neck over the hickeys he had left from that morning. “C’mon, Jihoonie,” he urged. “Ride me, baby, you’re doing so well.”

Breathing ragged, Jihoon managed to scrape up the energy to do so, thighs biting firmly into the saddle as he started to bounce on Soonyoung’s cock. There was so little support that he almost failed, but each time he managed to lift Soonyoung rewarded him with a punishingly hard thrust into him as he fell down again. He begged and babbled, unsure what he was saying; his world was sheer stinging pleasure from the force of their fucking but he loved it, wanted more more _more._

It didn’t take long for Soonyoung to haul him up with an arm around his belly; Jihoon flopped like a ragdoll as his husband took over. With his head tilted to roll on Soonyoung’s shoulder he stared blindly at the ceiling, praying the pleasure would never end as his hands patted messily at his cum-slick belly to feel the bulge caused by the massive cock inside him.

_Please,_ he prayed inchoately to whatever was listening. _Please, let it happen, I want it so much…_

Nothing answered his prayers but his husband’s fingers pinching at his nipples to rouse him a little. Shouting, spasming, it was the last little touch he needed, and he rolled his head to one side as Soonyoung’s fangs slid out and he bit into the side of his throat, leaving a matching mark to the one from this morning. The bite pulled and wrung at him in great surges; the pleasure pushed him over the edge and his rim clamped down tightly on Soonyoung’s cock, forcing his husband over the edge as well.

Jihoon drifted, sustained by the pulling at his neck and the squirting deep inside him. _Please_ , he begged again as he slowly filled up full. Even when Soonyoung stopped drinking, he merely hung pinned on his cock, slowly feeling the great, wet surges of heat deep inside him.

“Baby?” Soonyoung asked as he softly licked and laved at the mark his fangs had made, healing it with clever little licks of his tongue. His arms gentled their hold, and he moved to rest his hands on Jihoon’s tummy instead, caressing insistently as it slowly distended from the seed inside him. “Are you okay?”

Jihoon’s mind hiccupped with the effort thought required, and he giggled, alarmed at how delirious he felt. “Save a horse,” he whispered. “Ride a cowboy~”

Soonyoung’s laughter nearly shook the rafters of the building, loud and almost braying from the bad joke. “Jihoonie,” he crowed. “God, I love you!”

Jihoon laughed with; he couldn’t feel his legs or anything below his waist, but in that moment it didn’t matter with how absurdly pleasured and happy he felt.

* * *

Year 3

His attention returned to the present with a jerk as someone knocked on the car door next to him. His eyes sprang open from where he had been reminiscing in his little warm cocoon, and he smiled involuntarily as he saw Soonyoung mime for him to roll down the window. Seconds later a gust of cold air filled the car as he did just that, and he got handed a large bag with drinks first, then a brown paper bag with steaming food. “Thanks,” he muttered, voice gritty with lack of use, and grinned when Soonyoung leant through to peck his cheek.

“Roll the window up again,” Soonyoung said softly, waiting until he did so to throw him a thumbs-up.

Jihoon sat back to sigh before he dived into the bag of food, heading straight for the rice. He hadn’t had morning sickness (and wouldn’t, according to Sophie), but the babies were hungry little beasts, and he was constantly stuffing his mouth with food. Even now, after just a couple of mouthfuls of rice, his hunger roared into being and he went through everything in the bag on fast-forward, washing it down with some disgusting healthy drink Sophie had okayed. He wanted coffee. He wanted soju and kimchi and his mother’s cooking; when he had told her that over the phone she had laughed and told him to stop moaning, that it was his fault he couldn’t have it.

He had _almost_ had Soonyoung on the kimchi thing, until his mother had explained to his husband that fermented foods weren’t the best. Since that day it had meant the end to most forms of dairy, cheeses, kimchi, gochujang… more foods than he could recall.

Finishing the last of the drink, he stared out of the window at the electric charging station they were at, registering the familiar lines vaguely. He still felt a little bitter about leaving Seungkwan behind at their house, especially with so many renovations to deal with, but his husband had put his foot down on that as well – they would be going to Siddeley until the pregnancy was past the initial danger stages, not just because Sophie would be there over Christmas, but because he trusted the others to help protect Jihoon.

Jihoon wasn’t sure what he needed protection against that Soonyoung couldn’t cope with. Weather? The passage of time? The luxury of their bedroom?

The driver’s seat door sprang open and Soonyoung hurried in as quickly as he could. “Done!” he said happily. “Did you… ah, good, good.”

Fighting not to roll his eyes, Jihoon stared judgingly at the single protein bar Soonyoung quickly bolted. “We can pull over somewhere so you can drink one of the bags in the box,” he said. “That’s only going to make your stomach sour.”

Soonyoung’s grin widened and he leaned to peck Jihoon’s cheek again, checking if the belt was still comfortably over his stomach. “We’re almost to the air field,” he said instead. “I’ll be fine.”

Feeling just a tad grumpy, Jihoon settled into his seat. He couldn’t fly to join his parents’ trip to Korea for Christmas, but Soonyoung didn’t think the roads safe either, so had hired a helicopter to fly them down there. A _helicopter_. One that he was sure Soonyoung would ask barely to skim the ground, in case something failed and they had to land. Last night he had had a dream that it had been one of those tiny, fast attack helicopters surrounded by a hoard of bumbling balloons that let Christmas presents fall to the ground when they were shot down.

His stomach churned and he breathed through the fullness. The sooner he got to Siddeley the better.

It was just under two hours later when the helicopter touched down at Siddeley; he didn’t look at Soonyoung tipping the young woman that had been at the control stick, just wished her a Merry Christmas as he clambered out. There, at a polite distance, Seungcheol, Sebastian and Chan stood like three monoliths, apparently not worried at all about the wind from the rotors chopping everyone’s hair into haystacks. Taking his bag, he moseyed on towards them eagerly, Soonyoung bare steps behind.

“How did it go?” Jihoon asked eagerly as soon as they had gotten through the greetings. “How’s Hannie- _hyung_?”

Seungcheol smiled a slow, gentle smile at him. “He’s resting. The babies are fine too.” He pouted. “Chan won naming rights through, I’m still sure the little shit cheated.”

“I did not!” Chan denounced as he made a grab for their bags, swinging two under an arm before he reached for the rest. “You just suck at it, _abeoji_.”

“I am not calling my children, your brother and sister, Thunder and Lightning!” Seungcheol flared. “They’re babies, not cartoon characters!”

Amidst Soonyoung’s loud laughter, Sebastian stepped forward to gently hug Jihoon. “He’s fine,” he said again, stoicism melting for a moment. “He wants to see you as soon as possible. And they’re named Minseok and Eleanor. Chan’s been stuck in the books your Seungkwan-ssi recommended.”

He stepped back after only a second of contact, wise enough not to linger, and Jihoon beamed at him. Leaving the lot behind to wrangle all their luggage and argue, he made his way into Siddeley, greeted their fanatically loyal housekeeper and hastened his step to the nursery section. Jeonghan still looked asleep as he peeked around the door, tired and worn out from the last few days; Sophie was changing the bandages on the surgical incision when he tiptoed inside. There were two bassinets close by, but he ignored them for the moment.

“How is he?” he asked Sophie as softly as he could, shedding his coats.

She smiled at him and nodded. “Perfect, no problems at all. Just still sore. We can get the babies out so quick these days, but it’s still a large intrusion into the body. Just don’t jostle him.”

Jihoon nodded and held his breath as he clambered onto the bed as gently as he could, and went to rest against Jeonghan. It didn’t take long for a querulous mumble to sound, and an arm slipped around him to drag him closer. “ _Hyung_ ,” he murmured. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” Jeonghan whispered. “Sleepy. Sore. Take a nap with me.”

Jihoon glanced at Sophie, who shot him a thumbs-up before she came close. “Dad,” she said softly, helping Jeonghan’s head up a little. “Drink these tablets, okay? It’s a mild painkiller, but it’s the best I can give you until the wounds heal.” As Jeonghan drank, she smiled over his head at Jihoon. “I just want to go and take a shower, but I’ll be in later to help wash and feed the babies. Stay with him, please? He doesn’t want Father to see him like this, it brings up too many old memories.”

Jihoon swallowed and nodded, threading an arm in behind Jeonghan’s head. “No problems,” he said.”

Silence fell over the room as she left; Jihoon took care not to jostle Jeonghan as he slipped in underneath the blankets. “Sleep,” he ordered gently, and began to comb Jeonghan’s hair with his fingers, humming a soft melody. It wasn’t long until his friend drifted off, and he napped soon afterwards, asleep with the strangely good mix of warmth and baby smell and barely-there astringency.

It was quite a bit later when Sebastian came to kiss Jeonghan goodbye, having to make sure one of the family’s other homes in Scotland was safely shut down for the winter, including the livestock. When Jihoon blinked muzzily into the golden lamp-light, he saw it was twilight out already, and the bassinets had been moved as well. He wrinkled his nose at his haystack hair and moseyed out as Sebastian carried his father downstairs, going to splash water on his face.

The family had gathered in one of the smaller conversational rooms with a view towards the lake. There was a large tree in one corner, impeccably decorated, but its feet were snowed under by presents of all shapes and sizes. The rest of the family were in couches along the fire; there were snacks for those that ate solid food and antique cut-crystal vases of animal blood for those that didn’t; Jihoon ignored all of these as he made for the chair Soonyoung was lounging in, pressing his hands aside so that he could curl up on his lap.

“Hey,” Soonyoung whispered into his hairline as he made to hug him close, shifting a little for Jihoon’s comfort. “Hello, Jeonghan- _hyung_. I saw the babies, they’re perfect.”

Jeonghan, shifting from his son’s arms to his husband’s, made a muffled greeting, but he was soon tucked into an embrace and nodded off into another nap. Sophie wandered out with Sebastian, talking under her breath, and Chan forgot his sulkiness long enough to scoot closer as well, still trapped in the depths of homework hell.

The fire crackled again and for a moment Jihoon considered falling asleep again, before he felt a slight shift against him and Soonyoung’s words to Chan echoed in his chest. “That’s wrong,” his husband said, nodding to the paper Chan had been writing on. “Daffyd Gam died protecting his king at Agincourt, not Hastings, but later on, not in the thick of battle.” An odd note coloured his husband’s voice. “He had dragged Henry free from the main battle because the idiot didn’t want to listen to us and fought in the thick of things. Henry knighted him on the spot, but it was too late, he died immediately afterwards.”

Jihoon’s mind worked as he tried to remember when the Battle of Agincourt was.

“Really?” Chan said softly. “Were you there? What was it like?”

“Chan,” Seungcheol said reprovingly.

Soonyoung sighed. “It’s okay. It was ugly, Channie. Humphrey’s death provoked Henry into desperation on the field, and I was trapped on the other side. I barely got to them in time to kill the Duke of Alençon and help Daffyd.” He paused. “Our army was already weary and very hungry, and it was desperation that got us through, that and the terrain and our longbowmen. I remember sitting in silence the night before the opening moves, wondering if it would be my last night on earth.”

_Agincourt, Agincourt,_ Jihoon’s mind chanted. _When was Agincourt?_ He surreptitiously reached to get his phone and fired off a question to Soonyoung. The answer made him boggle. “You were alive in 1415?” he asked, voice thin with surprise.

Against the backdrop of Seungcheol’s laugh, Soonyoung shifted to smile down at him. “I came over with William the Conqueror in 1066,” he said mildly. “But if you’re shocked, Seungcheol- _hyung_ is even older.”

Seungcheol grimaced. “Not _that_ much older,” he muttered. “But yes. The two of us had been travelling around together by then, moving from Korea to Asia Minor to Europe to avoid detection. We joined him in that battle to avoid getting our heads chopped off. I think, if it even matters, that I was born somewhere like three years after Silla absorbed the Gaya confederacy. Somewhere… somewhere around 506? I don’t recall precisely.”

“Mine is easier,” Soonyoung said. “I was born in the year that Anjang of Goguryeo assumed the throne in 519.”

“A thousand five hundred years?” Jihoon strangled. “You’re a thousand five hundred years old? What the hell?”

Jeonghan roused from their conversation. “And they still don’t have a lick of sense,” he said waspishly. “So don’t let that fool you. Channie has more sense than these two old men.”

“Hey!” Chan complained. “Dad!”

“Hannie,” Seungcheol whined. “So mean.”

Still shocked, Jihoon curled up anew, tucking his head underneath Soonyoung’s chin and listened to the slow, thudding beats of his heart to reassure himself.

* * *

Year 3

Winter passed into spring, then summer before Jihoon began to think of leaving Siddeley. Between the constant food and the care and supplements, he was disgustingly healthy, but he had had to dip into Jeonghan’s stash of pregnancy clothes to deal with the fact that he was definitely starting to show. They were long enough that they fit around the middle, but swamped his ankles – Soonyoung had already started making noises about another shopping trip.

Jihoon had rolled his eyes at that – as if the modern world made pregnancy clothes for men. Jeonghan’s stash was far more dependable.

He turned from the window to look at the trio deeper into the solar. Chan was on baby-watch today; for all he complained he doted on Minseok and Eleanor, and guarded the three of them fiercely. Jihoon hadn’t known how fiercely until he saw him spar against Jeonghan, who could move like a whip when he wanted to. Chan might be almost as compact as him, but a warrior’s heart beat underneath all that sweetness and moody teenaged rebellion.

“Who are the people coming again?” he asked as he turned away from the window to wander over to check the babies. They were fussing and whining, clearly not in the mood for sleep. Grimacing – he had been feeling odd all morning – he sank down on a seat to rest a bit, one hand automatically reaching to a tray of sandwiches.

Chan peered at him from where he was changing Minseok’s diaper with a wrinkled nose. “Dad’s one friend from America,” he explained. “And one of Father’s acquaintances that recently decided to stop wandering and live in this century instead. Hong Jisoo-ssi and Lee Seokmin-ssi – is he any family of yours, perhaps?”

By now Jihoon had no trouble deciphering the answer: dad always referred to Jeonghan, and the more formal father to Seungcheol; he had seen pictures of Hong Jisoo before, but from the sound of it Lee Seokmin-ssi was a vampire that had decided come in out of the cold… or whatever the relevant phrase was. “I don’t think so,” he muttered. “Unless it’s very far back into history, and then I wouldn’t know.” He shifted, trying to get comfortable, but something made him nervous and nauseous, prevented him from sitting still. “What’s that smell?” he finally demanded.

Chan’s look turned disbelieving. “It’s baby poop, _hyung_ , you don’t know how that smells by now? Anyway, the last two are Chinese, I don’t know them well but apparently they’re a mated pair and they know Seokmin-ssi…”

“No,” Jihoon interrupted, brows clenching together as his stomach churned again. The sandwich went straight back to the plate. “It’s not that, it’s something sweeter? Like… chemically sweet?”

Chan paused to sniff, went to the corridor to inhale there, then to the windows; when he came back he was white and wasted no time in bundling the babies up into a large cari-cot, moving to wrap a blanket around Jihoon seconds later. “Move,” he said tightly. “Take the babies.”

Bewildered, Jihoon took the babies, totally lost. He had barely a second to breath before Chan – moody teenaged Chan – picked him up in his arms babies and all and turned for the window, jumping through it and falling to the ground two floors beneath. Jihoon screamed and ducked around the babies as glass shattered all around him; seconds later he felt the impact of Chan’s feet against the ground and they were off.

Despite being married to a vampire, he had never seen Soonyoung act at the apex of his strength and speed; Chan ran so fast with them the scenery around them blurred. He barely had a moment to see fire bloom in the manor behind him before they were into the woods and accelerating faster. It felt surreal – Chan showed no signs of slowing down or difficulty carrying them – and all Jihoon could do was curl into as small a ball as he could, arms frantic not to hurt the babies. Motion sickness churned in his gut, and he prayed he wouldn’t get sick all over them. He felt dizzy and nauseous beyond belief, and there was the most disgusting burnt smell that he couldn’t get away from no matter how much he hid his face.

He wasn’t sure how long it was until they abruptly stopped in the middle of an abandoned field. The babies disappeared from his arms just in time as he thudded to his knees and retched, body bowing with the force. That smell was everywhere around him and he couldn’t stop, he couldn’t _breathe_ ….

“Chan!” someone shouted behind him as a car pulled up with screeching brakes some distance away. In the next second Soonyoung was there holding him, arm supporting him and one palm warm against his nape. Conversation turned into a high, twittery mess of sounds as he vomited over and over.

“I’m here,” Soonyoung whispered to him. “I’m here, baby. Calm down, I’m here. Breathe. Slow down.”

Jihoon leant into the touch, derived comfort from it, until his stomach ceased turning and he dragged in a breath as conversation started to make sense again. Exhausted, he sank into Soonyoung’s arms as his husband gently wiped his mouth clean, holding up a bottle of water to help him rinse his mouth and wash his face.

“What happened?” a strange voice demanded. “Is he okay? Why are we in a field? I thought the house was still miles away! Why is he looking like that?”

“I’m sorry!” Chan’s voice wailed, thin with a note he had never heard before. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt him, I didn’t know what to do…” He sounded desperately frightened and tired, whinging with pain.

“Hush,” Seungcheol’s voice came, soft but firm. “We’re not going to sort anything out like this. I phoned the fire station, they’re sending trucks immediately. For the moment we can go to the hunting lodge; Soonyoung, will you be able to carry him? I’ll take Chan and Minseok… jagi, you’re okay with Eleanor? Seokmin-ah, if you’ll please take Jisoo-ah, I’ll return for the car later on. Minghao-ssi, Junhui-ssi, if you could follow?”

“Is it safe?” Soonyoung demanded above him, already curling Jihoon into his arms. “Seungcheol…”

“It’s safe,” Seungcheol replied curtly. “It’s still the original construction.”

Jihoon closed his eyes, curling into Soonyoung’s embrace, and stopped paying attention to things.

The hunting lodge turned out to be of granite and wood construction, poked away in the back woods on Siddeley’s vast grounds. Jihoon woke up as someone tucked him into the wide bed in the master suite; Jeonghan came to join him soon afterwards, with the babies tucked between them and Chan on his dad’s other side. The young vampire looked _terrible;_ his skin was red and burnt and wet in patches, eyes a rheumy old yellow; Seungcheol was hovering over him, forcing blood from a pack down his throat.

“What happened?” Jihoon whispered; there were strange people there but he only had eyes for Soonyoung, who perched on the bed at his side. “Why is he like that?”

Soonyoung grimaced and rested a hand on his forehead. “One of the gas boilers for heating water for the conservatory exploded, we think,” he explained. “Seungcheol managed to get hold of the staff there – thank god no-one had been close – but when it went the other boilers did too. The explosion took out nearly the entire conservatory, and made a mess of the section you lot were in. The solar you two were in was hit hard. Can you remember what happened?”

Jihoon grimaced tiredly. “I was feeling tired and off,” he said, throat aching. “I wanted to go home, and I felt nauseous with a huge headache, and the babies were fussing – they’re okay, right?”

“They’re ok,” Jeonghan soothed from the side. “They’re fine. Go on.”

Jihoon swallowed again. “I remember smelling something strange, sort of faintly sweet, and I asked Chan what it was. He went to check and in the next moment we were somehow running? Gods, he jumped clear down through the window, and he was moving so fast…”

“Instinct,” Soonyoung judged. “He’s such a young vampire still, he wouldn’t know why he was doing something, just that he had to act when he registered danger. He simply got you away the fastest he could.” His voice wobbled. “I’m very grateful to him. He ran through sunlight to get you three out. I think… I think what you smelled was the gas leak.”

“I…oh.” Jihoon finally understood. Vampires couldn’t tolerate sunlight until they were older, something about an anomaly that caused their skin to over-produce certain compounds, which led to the burning and blistering. For such a young vampire, especially if he was expending his strength in other ways, it would be acutely painful.

_That smell, the sizzle I couldn’t get away from. That was Chan, that was little Channie…_

Abruptly he was nauseous again, and Soonyoung barely managed to get a bowl there for him in time. “I want to go home,” he got out afterwards, mouth newly clean again. “I want to go home, Youngie, I don’t want to be here anymore…” He lunged for his husband, soaking his shirt with tears.

Soonyoung bit his lip and nodded, looking over the small crying form in his arms to Seungcheol. “Siddeley’s going to require rebuilding,” he said. “We can’t be sure if it’s simply sloppy renovation work or deliberate malicious acts. Come into the north with us, Gunsloe’s still as it was for the past century, and Hansol-ah’s there as well. It’ll be safe, he can ask the packs still on the grounds to keep an eye out for us.”

Seungcheol grimaced, looking down at his injured son, then his new babies. Finally he met Jeonghan’s eyes, staring quietly at him.

“ _Jagi_ ,” Jeonghan said very softly. “We’ll be safe there. We can ask Wonwoo-ya and Mingyu-ya to return as well.”

Seungcheol’s jaw rippled, but he finally nodded, shoulders sloping. “I will be in your debt for your protection,” he murmured, words having a peculiar ritualistic tinge to them.

Soonyoung nodded, transferring his gaze to the four strangers. Hong Jisoo looked massively confused about the whole situation – he wasn’t sure how much he knew of their world – but the three vampires were staring at him solemnly. “You’re welcome too,” he said after a long moment of arguing with himself. He saw the impact his words had on Lee Seokmin – the loner look surprised but gratified – but it was the two Chinese vampires that surprised him. After a quick, whispered conference the broader, taller one of the two stepped forward.

“Thank you,” Wen Junhui said hesitantly in thick, accented English; he dipped a hand with four long finger-protectors into his robe’s sleeve and brought out what looked like a knotted, braided talisman, taking extreme care as he leant to place it on Jihoon’s feet. “To the babies and your mate, we pledge protection yes? We are grateful, China is not good to us right now. My mate wishes me to say that he is grateful too, and he will ask the spirits for many blessings.”

Soonyoung blinked. “He still follows the old ways?” he questioned, darting a look at Xu Minghao.

The vampire stared back at him with gentle, distant eyes, but there was something behind them, something more ancient than he had ever seen before, and Soonyoung swallowed with the implications. Wen Junhui’s nod only confirmed his suspicious.

Jihoon, unsure of the cause of the tension, managed to sit up a little. “Thank you,” he said uncertainly as he reached for the talisman. It pulsed warmly in his hand, and his stomach settled as if it were magic; he sighed softly at the surcease. “You’re very welcome.”


	2. Chapter 2

Seungkwan, drifting in the very magical, very delicious afterglow of his boyfriend fucking him to a fare-thee-well over the desk in his study, groaned as the phone next to his ear started ringing insistently. Hansol was still deep inside him, though not knotted (thank goodness that didn’t happen too often), and he felt so good he didn’t want to answer the phone, let alone think of moving. They were going to have a picnic later, their last time uninterrupted in the house before renovations on the stables started, and he…

_Wait. Is that Jihoon-hyung’s name?_

He grunted as he pulled the phone closer, head still tilted as Hansol gently patted at his butt – Hansol was _such_ an ass-man it wasn’t funny – and stared at it for a moment before he answered it. “Hello?” he asked, voice rough and deep and lazy from a blow-job earlier. “Jihoonie- _hyung_? Is that you?”

The voice on the other side paused. “No, it’s Soonyoung,” his mentor’s husband said. “I’m trying to ring Hansol-ah, is he with you?”

Seungkwan blinked but passed the phone over. “It’s for you,” he muttered and flopped his head down on the table again, too tired to listen in.

The lassitude lasted exactly until Hansol put the call down. He pulled carefully out of Seungkwan, smacked his ass gently and leant to help him up straight. “Kwannie,” he said. “Wake up. The _hyungdeul_ are coming back, something happened at Siddeley. They’re on their way right now, and they’re bringing guests.”

The news shocked Seungkwan enough to jerk up; if it hadn’t been for Hansol his legs would not have carried him. Grunting, suddenly aware of what a mess he was, he fought to straighten. “Now?” he whined. “Shower, we need showers! Open the window so it can air out here, shit, _help me_ …!”

Hansol sighed patiently and swung Seungkwan into his arms. “We still have two hours. Let’s get you into the bath and I’ll clean up quickly whilst you soak and get you some clothes. Come on. Hold on.”

Through the magic of a bracing soak in hot water and a clean pair of clothes, Seungkwan felt reasonably presentable as he waited at the open manor entrance with Hansol as a line of SUVs swung in to park there. His mouth opened to greet everyone, but slammed shut as someone with second-degree burns over most of his body got carried out first by a stranger, one that loped like Soonyoung- _hyung_ and brushed past him with little explanation.

Next came two babies held in a blonde’s arms; he recognised the blonde as Yoon Jeonghan from Jihoon’s photos, but most of the people that spilled from the cars afterwards he didn’t recognise, right until a visibly pregnant Jihoon stumbled up the stairs to fall into his arms. He braced against his weight, suddenly angry as Jihoon buried his face in his neck and cried. Still, he held him as Soonyoung briefly talked to Hansol, which saw his boyfriend setting out for the woods as Soonyoung rapidly ascended the stairs. “Soonyoung- _hyung_?” he questioned tightly, arms still around Jihoon.

“It’s relief, Seungkwanie,” Soonyoung explained, giving his husband a delicate pat on the head. “He’s relieved and a little bit hormonal at the moment, today’s been bad for him. We’ll explain in a bit, but can you take over for him just a little? Split the guests up into rooms, make sure that they’re comfortable? I don’t think he can deal with that just now.”

“Of course!” Seungkwan said stoutly but softly. “Always, _hyung_. You know I will.”

Soonyoung smiled and gently removed Jihoon from his grasp, picking his pregnant, crying husband up in his arms to carry him inside.

_Right,_ Seungkwan thought, turning with his hands on his hips. _Thank goodness I read all those books on household management._

He marched into the house and into the spill of people ambling around in the entryway, clearing his throat. “Um, if all of you could come with me, please? I’ll show you to rooms, then the afternoon sitting room, and if you could tell me who eats what, I’d appreciate it…”

The chaos lessened gradually as he split them up into rooms. Choi Seungcheol and his family got a suite, because even he could see they didn’t want to be split up and it nearly broke him to realise the badly burnt boy was Channie, he of the excited, sunny texts that had been amusing Seungkwan for months. Lee Seokmin went into the Daffodil room next to them, then the Chinese _hyungdeul_ into the Iris suite next-door, and finally he showed Hong Jisoo to the Lily bedroom right next to his own Rose one.

“Wait!” Jisoo said frantically as he was about to leave. “I… um, do you know what’s going on? That question about the food… are they…”

Seungkwan turned to stare at him, heart pinching when he saw the confusion on his fine-cut face. “No,” he said at length. “We’re not going to be the food. Sit down, Jisoo-ssi, you look a little wild around the eyes.”

Jisoo took a step backward and folded onto the bed, scrubbing his face with his hands. “It was a very short explanation in the car,” he muttered behind them. “I always knew that Hannie was different, but now there’re vampires and apparently one of them is _really old_ and I’m so confused. That boy is so injured, and now we’re all here, and I don’t know what to think. Are we in some kind of novel?”

Seungkwan took pity on him. “If we’re in a novel it’s the good kind,” he promised. “None of them will hurt you, I’m pretty sure. I’m human too, and they’ve not hurt me. It’ll be really, really fine, I promise.” He bit his lip. “I could… I could make you some chicken nuggets? You must be hungry; I’m not a good cook but I can air-fry them for you. Or you could take a nap?”

“Chicken nuggets?” Jisoo questioned, caught off guard and vulnerable. “Like… real chicken nuggets? I thought it would be all caviar and blood here from the look of this place.”

Wrinkling his nose expressively, Seungkwan shook his head. “Chicken nuggets. Or pizza, if you don’t mind the reheated stuff? Hansol should have your luggage soon, if you want to take a shower and then come down, or even just nap.”

“Thank you,” Hong Jisoo said very softly, tension leaving his shoulders. “I would love some chicken nuggets and a nap.”

Beaming, Seungkwan nodded and left.

Later that day – most everyone had chosen to stay in their rooms and sleep, or meditate – Seungkwan made his way downstairs, gathering the bowl of bland congee he had made for Jihoon. Seungcheol, Soonyoung and Hansol were out on the lands, roaming to ascertain their safety and assuage the prompting from instincts. The house had grown silent again, and it wasn’t much different as he entered the small study Jihoon- _hyung_ preferred, finding him curled up on the couch beneath a blanket, dressed from top to toe in Soonyoung’s too-big clothes. Setting the congee on the table, he inveigled himself into the spot between the couch’s arm and Jihoon’s body, reaching to embrace him.

His _hyung_ mumbled sleepily and turned to snuggle into his arms, allowing Seungkwan a moment to look at him. His hair and skin were radiant with the same health he had seen six months ago, but his expression was drawn with tiredness and worry, there was a frown on his face even in sleep, and there almost wasn’t space for both of them with his _hyung_ ’s new belly. Ignoring _that_ for a moment, he hitched Jihoon a little higher in his arms and shook him awake. “ _Hyung_ ,” he whispered in his ear. “Come on, it’s time to eat something. Just a little, ok?”

He had never seen Jihoon as passive as he was then; though shorter Jihoon had always been the stronger of the two of them. Even though he was soft and sweet most of the time, he had a core of iron to him, and Seungkwan had looked up to him their entire time in Busan together, adoring him as both a role model and an informal brother. Seeing him like this, so passive, was hurting him a little.

He grimaced and reached for the bowl, ignoring his _hyung_ ’s mumble of ‘Youngie…’ as he lifted a spoon to his mouth. Very slowly, spoonful by spoonful, he fed him the bland porridge, blowing over it to cool it before popping it into his mouth. It was only when he scraped the bowl clean for the last that Jihoon seemed to wake up; brown tired-looking eyes flicked to look at him, and he watched them tear up.

“You’re safe,” was the first thing that came from Jihoon’s mouth, and it surprised Seungkwan, upset him with the patent gratitude the words held. He said nothing for the moment, holding his _hyung_ as the shirt above his collarbone got drenched with tears; all he could do was pat his back in slow circles to reassure him.

“I’m safe,” he confirmed into his _hyung_ ’s hair, heart hurting. All it did was cause Jihoon to curl up smaller, to scrabble to get on his lap and make himself small in Seungkwan’s arms. “I’m safe, _hyung_ , I promise. Hansol wouldn’t let anything happen to me, we’ve been having a quiet time. Shhh, okay? I’m fine, you’re here and healthy, and you’re safe now too, okay? You’re safe now, I promise. You’re in your home again, and you can sleep in your own bed and everything will be okay.”

He got the story from Jihoon in little bits and pieces; his skin turned pimpled with gooseflesh as he understood how close Jihoon had come to real harm. Between the explanation was a whole lot of fears and insecurities and tiredness. He held him and whispered nothings to him and hummed their songs to him until his _hyung_ settled down in his arms again, wrung out from not only the snarl of contrary hormones but the fear of the babies inside him, and the guilt that Chan had gotten hurt so badly to protect them.

When Soonyoung came in an hour later, clearly hunting for his husband, Seungkwan was still holding Jihoon tucked underneath his chin, hands rubbing gently along his belly as he sang to comfort the frightened babies inside. Jihoon had long since fallen asleep, this time into true slumber. He didn’t stop patting him as he looked up, still humming old songs he could remember his mother singing to him, but stopped when Soonyoung joined them on the couch.

The vampire leant in to press his ear against his husband’s belly, listening intently before placing two gentle kisses on the taut, round stretch. “Thank you,” he said gently to Seungkwan. “For taking care of him and for organising the rest. He’s been missing his Seungkwanie terribly.”

Seungkwan managed a shadow of a smile. “I got what happened from him, at least a little. He got such a bad scare today and he told me how sick he got?”

Soonyoung nodded. “He’s not a vampire, and Channie was likely nose-deaf from changing the diapers. The babies were trying to warn them, and their stress spiked his heartbeat and upset his own. It’s no wonder he got so sick afterwards, especially after that run.” He bit his lip, then reached into his mouth to nick one fingertip on a fang, moving to daub the blood very gently on Jihoon’s lower lip.

Seungkwan watched, fascinated, as his _hyung_ woke up just enough to lick the droplet off, then fell asleep again. “You guys run so much on instincts,” he finally said, clearing his throat. “I’m really proud of you too, _hyung_ , for taking care of him and ensuring his safety and not going blind in rage – it must have been difficult, right?” His cheeks puffed a little. “But I’m angry at you that neither of you told me he’s pregnant! How dare you not tell me I’m going to have little cousins?”

Soonyoung’s lopsided smile broadened, and he reached to pet Seungkwan’s hair gently. “We wanted to get over the first, difficult phase,” he explained. “Jihoonie’s been insecure about it, because he feared you’d think he was weird and sick for doing this. I think that’s why he delayed it so long, and I didn’t want to go against his wishes and tell you. But... thank you, Seungkwanie. I appreciate that.”

Huffing, suppressing the desire to shake both of them, Seungkwan fought off a pout. “We’re going to throw him a baby shower,” he said. “And I’m going to have to borrow on my pay check from you, _hyung_ , I need to buy all the presents…”

Half-laughing, Soonyoung nodded. “Jihoonie’s been fighting me hard on that as well, I’d love to throw a party and bury him in gifts. And _of course_ I will, but I don’t think that’s going to be necessary or wise. Hansol-ah would try to crunch my hands off if I gave you money – you really won him over, he didn’t stop speaking about you the entire patrol, and he’s more than rich enough to provide for the both of you. I’ll let him cover your tab, okay? But don’t worry, I’ll threaten him a little bit too, just in case.”

Seungkwan blushed; his _hyung_ ’s expression made it clear he knew that the two of them had hooked up. “I can’t take his money, so just my pay-check if that’s ok,” he said softly, cheeks pink, which he attempted to hide against Jihoon’s hair. “Thank you. Do you want to take him?”

“No,” Soonyoung said restfully. “He’s comfortable with you. Keep on singing if you can? The babies like it.” He reached to place Seungkwan’s hands back on Jihoon’s belly. “And rub? If they’re restful he’ll sleep deeper. It’ll give me time to go and take a shower.”

Seungkwan’s heart ached painfully, heart very soft, and nodded. He started humming again as the door closed on them.

_Love you, hyung,_ his heart sang with him. _Love you, love you, love you._

* * *

As the days passed, Hong Jisoo became more comfortable with the fact that he was sharing a house with a bunch of _vampires_. Hannie was recovering nicely, as was Chan, and everyone treated him politely and warmly, as if he was one of the most important guests in their house. His next-door neighbours, the Chinese couple, were very quiet and considerate, but had once invited him to come and play mah-jongg with them. Indeed, the quietest people seemed to be Lee Jihoon, and _that_ was understandable and relatable, and the tall vampire that trailed behind Boo Seungkwan, the other whole human in the house.

He didn’t quite get Seungkwan’s relationship, but the younger man was kind and soft-spoken and his duets with Lee Seokmin were so beautiful that he couldn’t be afraid of either. Instead he helped where he could, tried to understand what he could, and tried to gently adapt to this new reality he had been thrown into.

Some days he could handle it better than others. Others like today, when he had heard that apparently Hansol’s very married parents were returning from Venice just in case, it all was a bit much to him, and he fled to the manor’s excellent library. It was so warm that he wasn’t even ashamed that he had just a sleeveless top and shorts on; it felt nice and cool as he perched on top of the shelf’s ladder, paging through an illustrated herbal from two centuries ago. Despite its age the book was still immaculate, with the drawings done in a fine wash of colours and little notes made in a feminine hand.

“Jisoo-ssi?” he heard, and looked up as Seokmin entered the library, ambling up to the bottom of his ladder. “Some of us are going swimming now that the sun is down, Chan-ah is complaining of being house-bound. Do you want to come with?”

Jisoo shot a confused look at the big windows, eyes widening as he saw darkness outside. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I hadn’t even noticed the lights coming on in here. Isn’t it too late to go swimming?”

“Not at all, the water should still be warm in the lake from the sun earlier. Even Jihoon- _hyung_ is coming with. It’ll only be a quick run over there.” Seokmin smiled hopefully up at him. “Please say yes? We all want you there.”

Something about the guileless smile made Jisoo’s heart warm. “A quick run?” he got out. “Are you going to carry me again?”

Something flared in Seokmin’s eyes, but was gone as he smiled again. “I thought I might, yes. I don’t mind, I’m quite strong, and we’re going to be running fast.” He tilted his head. “Is that a yes?”

Jisoo smiled down at him and nodded, turning to place the book back on the shelf. He turned to descend, but his foot slipped, and he snatched in a gasp as he fell, eyes pinching shut as the floor rushed at him.

Arms caught him, soft and gentle as dandelion fluff, and held him securely to a strong chest. “Jisoo-ssi,” Seokmin scolded above him, clearly laughing silently. “I didn’t mean you should be that eager for a swim.”

Jisoo’s teeth gritted; he was suddenly one of the softest, most fragile things in the house and all the vampires seemed aware of it; he was going to flick Hannie’s earlobe red as can be for not explaining properly to him. The only ones the vampires fussed over more was Jihoon-ssi and the kids. He kept his eyes shut as hands picked him up and swung him over; his legs had to part wide to straddle Seokmin’s hips, and he wasn’t sure why his pride as a man didn’t sting more. “Thank you,” he managed to get out as he opened his eyes; they were already to the door and he was carried as if he weighed _nothing_.

The trip from the manor house to the lake shore really was very short, especially with the speed the vampires ran it. Seungkwan-ah, perched on his boyfriend’s shoulders, shouted loud enough that Jisoo could hear the cry dopplering as they rushed there; beneath him Seokmin chuckled and kept to his sensible pace. “He’s showing off,” he said to Jisoo.

Bothered by the rush of air, Jisoo had to lean close to listen; it saw him plastered against Seokmin’s back with his chin hooked over his shoulder; the vampire was pleasantly cool against him, but not as icy-cold as he would have thought. “What was that?”

“Hansol-ah is showing off for Seungkwanie,” Seokmin repeated. “He’s courting him, so it’s like flexing his muscles. Just listen for a moment… ah!”

Close to them, Jisoo heard Chan shout in challenge and run off too.

Seokmin’s deep chuckle transmitted it to Jisoo through vibrations felt by his legs more than sound. “They’re still very young. They’ll settle down as they’re older. It’s good to see actually, we don’t see very many young ones these days. We’re a dying race.”

Jisoo frowned a little, too curious to move away. “Is that why… um. The pregnancies and so on? I know about Sophie and Eleanor, but you guys haven’t mentioned other female vampires yet.”

“There are very few left,” Seokmin said, slowly down a little. “Either the very old, or the very young, like Jeonghan- _hyung_ ’s kids. They faced vastly more persecution than the males, and women historically did not get the same survival training as men did. I think I know of… maybe five? The two here, then a mated pair in Asia, and Baba Yaga, but no one is mad enough to try and track her down. I’m not so sure about Africa, but I don’t think there are any there.” He paused. “Does that bother you? Two men procreating in that way?”

Jisoo fell quiet, considering the gentle question. “I’m gay myself,” he said at length. “And I’ve always thought that one day I might adopt, but I was brought up religiously.” At a hitch in Seokmin’s smooth run, he leant in again. “I don’t mean I’m going to start preaching! It’s just still a little bit of an odd idea.”

Seokmin sped up again. “That’s good,” he said happily. “I’d hate to have to fight because of that.”

Something twisted in Jisoo; there was something about the unspoken care that all the vampires had for each other, the way that he knew they’d fight to protect their own, that touched him deeply and underlined how lonely he really was. Had he been keeping to himself the past few days to get a rest, or to protect the longing in his heart?

“Jisoo-ssi…”

“You can call me by my name, Seokmin-ssi,” Jisoo interrupted. “You’re literally giving me a piggyback ride.”

Seokmin’s voice sounded pleased. “Jisoo- _hyung_ … Jisoo-ya, I didn’t say it to make you sad, okay?” he explained. “Please don’t be so sad, it doesn’t smell very good.”

Jisoo blinked. “What do you mean?” he demanded; when he turned his head towards Seokmin’s he felt faint heat blossom in the ear he accidentally touched with his cheek. “Seokmin-ah?”

“Your scent,” the vampire very softly explained, hanging back a bit to let the others pass him. “It’s… wobbly. Normally you smell like sunshine and beach grass and a little tangy, like lemonade. Sadness waters you down, it doesn’t smell good or right.”

Jisoo’s cheeks flushed with the soft explanation. “I’m sorry…?”

Seokmin’s stride drew to a halt and he carefully swung Jisoo down, turning to face him in the deep twilight. With the lack of light he really was just a large shadow with broad shoulders; Jisoo was no slouch when it came to working out, but they were built on different scales, clearly, which caused him to swallow and take a step back.

“ _Hyung_ ,” Seokmin said from the dark. “You don’t need to be afraid. I know you’ve been having a little trouble adapting, but please don’t be sad. Unless I’m really forced to, like you trying to hurt the babies or one of the others, I would never harm you, okay? None of us would, I promise.” He paused. “Do you want me to swear an oath?”

If there was one thing Jisoo had learnt over the past few days it was that in creatures as old as the vampires, the only things they depended on was someone’s integrity and honour; he had seen how the Chinese had somehow sworn not to harm the children and how the others had accepted that. Dimly he wondered whether it was because they all came from ages where men really had nothing but their word to be proud of. He jerked as Seokmin reached to touch his hands gently, and he tugged on the large hands as the vampire seemed to want to kneel down.

“It’s okay,” he said, trying not to sound sad and impressed and heartbroken for what the situation meant; Hannie was his dearest friend, yet would far outlive him. Barring accident, any of the others would far outlive him. It made him feel small all of a sudden. “You don’t need to do that. I believe you.”

Seokmin lifted his hands; moments later soft, fluttery caresses swiped over his knuckles, a version of courtly kisses he doubted modern people still used. Oddly, it stilled his need to cry suddenly, gentled the sad twist in his belly.

“Don’t be sad,” the vampire said from the shapeless dark in front of him; light was falling fast now, but he had never been safer. “Promise?”

Jisoo swallowed, felt the sadness in his belly twist again, and leant forward to cry into Seokmin’s chest as he grieved for all the friendships that he would lose one day. He cried as he had cried last when his mother had died when he was five years old, and felt arms pull him closer to the strong chest he cried into. Lips brushed against his hair, whispering soft things he couldn’t make out, and they didn’t let him go even when the shirt beneath his face became soaked.

They arrived at the lake a good fifteen minutes after the rest; the younger ones were already splashing in the lake water and scaring the fishes. Junhui had joined them, laughing and playing as if he were a child as well. Jisoo couldn’t quite see Jeonghan’s sharp gaze as Seokmin carried him the last few moments, only heard a blur of conversation over his head as he tiredly got to his feet.

“Joshuji?” Jeonghan’s voice was very soft as Seokmin moved away, and the hand on his shoulder equally so. “Are you ok? Did Seokmin-ah say something to you?”

Jisoo nodded. “I am. We just talked a bit about something, I’m fine. He wasn’t nasty.”

Jeonghan sighed and moved to rub fingertips over his cheeks, wiping away the last of his tears. “Seungcheol said he’s a good man, I’m inclined to believe him,” he muttered. “But you’re my dearest friend, alright? If there’s anything I can do…”

Jisoo shook his head. “I’m going to take a swim,” he muttered. “I suddenly feel the need for a dip.”

Ambling away as Hannie let him go, he wandered a goodly distance off around the curve of the lake shore, until their small camping ground’s lights were a mere thin glare far away. Breathing in, he looked up at the splash of stars above him and resolved to live. Even if he didn’t have a vampire’s life-span he could do that, and prop in as many experiences as he could, and _live_. Determined, he shucked off his sleeveless t-shirt and shorts. A moment’s hesitation later he divested his briefs as well, storing everything safely.

The lake’s water against his skin felt very good, velvety and sweet and soft as salt water did not; he struck out in a slow crawl for some depth, enjoying the splashes for a few moments before he turned to drift on his back, eyes on the stars.

“Live,” he chanted to himself. “Live, live, live.”

* * *

Jihoon watched as first Jeonghan’s friend Jisoo then Seungkwan and Hansol, snuck off into the darkness. He didn’t need to have seen Seungkwanie’s giggling, beaming expression to know that they were likely going off to find some private time; he’d scold Hansol later on for corrupting his child. For the moment, he blinked as Soonyoung erected a small tent for comfort and strung up some lights; they shone just enough so that he could scoot to Jeonghan’s side without incident. Seungcheol was somewhere in the lake introducing the babies to water, and Chan splashed like an otter nearby; with Jeonghan’s wound almost healed his _hyung_ couldn’t swim yet, and had soon come out after wading a little earlier.

“Is your friend okay?” he asked him curiously, jerking his chin in the direction Jisoo had disappeared in. “What was that earlier?”

Jeonghan sighed and leant back against the cooler-box filled with drinks. “Joshuji is a little angry that I didn’t properly explain before, and he’s sad. He’s already had so much loss in his life, and sometimes I doubt whether it was the right choice to get involved in his life at all. He might have been happier for never knowing us.”

Jihoon frowned. “ _Hyung_ , no,” he said lowly. “I’m sure that’s not true.” He fell silent, then considered what Soonyoung had relayed to him earlier. “I don’t think he’s going to lose you.”

Jeonghan turned to face him. “He’s eventually going to get old, Jihoonie,” he explained. “Even us, if we stop drinking our husbands’ blood.”

Jihoon’s mouth furled into a thoughtful noot-shape. “I understand,” he said. “It’s not that. I mean that Seungkwanie told me Hansol said a certain unattached vampire of our acquaintance keeps on staring at Jisoo- _hyung_.” He nudged Jeonghan in the side. “And if there’s one person that’s an expert on staring it’s Hansol, he’s practically a moon-calf when it comes to Seungkwanie.”

“Oh?” Jeonghan said lightly, intrigue lifting the tone of his voice. “Oh! You think… gods, if that works out it’ll be the happiest day, I’ll have all my family around me.” He wrapped an arm around Jihoon and leant his head close. “Do you think we should meddle?”

Jihoon’s lips twitched, reminded of Soonyoung’s not-so-subtle matchmaking. “You might as well, before Youngie blunders in because he thinks it’s ‘romantic’. You know he doesn’t have a subtle bone in his body when he’s really excited about something.”

Jeonghan’s faint giggle was downright nasty, for all that it was chirpy and happy. “Watch this.”

He straightened, peeking around the camp until he located his target. “Seokmin-ah!” he called gently to the vampire paddling close by. “Seokmin-ah, may I ask you a quick favour?”

They watched as Seokmin obligingly hauled himself out of the lake to lope closer. “Hannie- _hyung_?” he said sweetly. “Sure, what is it? Do you want a drink, or should I run and go and fetch you another pillow? It won’t be a problem!”

Jihoon just _watched,_ observing the master at work with fascination.

“No, no!” Jeonghan said with a quick wave of his hand. “I’m comfortable, thank you, you’re so sweet. It’s Joshuji though – would you go and keep an eye on him? You know how fragile we humans are, and it’s night and an unfamiliar lake… I wouldn’t want anything to happen to him. You were so sweet with him earlier too, it would really set my mind at ease.”

Teeth flashed in the light as Seokmin gave them a sunny smile and a mock-salute. “No problem!”

They watched him lope off in the direction Jisoo had taken. “You are evil man,” a soft voice said behind them, and Xu Minghao stepped from the water’s edge with the babies in his arms, sinking down gracefully at their side. “You throw that much muscle at friend, how is friend supposed to say no?”

Jihoon giggled, cheered up for the first time in days, and made grabby motions towards one of the babies.

“That’s the idea,” Jeonghan said serenely. “That’s entirely the idea.”

Jisoo wasn’t sure how long he had been drifting when he heard faint splashes coming towards him. His thoughts had kept him too busy to think about time passing. Grimacing and sinking down in the water – he didn’t want to give one of the kids the shock of his life – he had just about sunk up to his neck in water when a seal-wet head of hair popped out of the lake next to him. He gasped, body flinging itself backwards from instinct, and almost swam away before a slice of moon revealed Seokmin’s lake-wet face. “You!” he scolded. “That was rude, frightening me like that!”

Seokmin’s laugh was soft and sweet. “I know, I can hear it,” he teased, reaching to wipe his face clean. “Your heart is galloping like a horse.”

Jisoo’s face flamed; his hand reacted without thinking and he reached to flick Seokmin’s earlobe like he sometimes did to Hannie. “Bad,” he said severely. “Bad man. Why are you here?”

Seokmin whined as his earlobe stung, and he reached to capture Jisoo’s hand, holding it with a delicate grasp. “I came to see if you were alright,” he muttered. “You don’t know the lake and when I saw how far out you were, I wanted to check if you were in danger. You can go on floating, I don’t mind. I’ll just watch from the edge of the lake.”

Jisoo’s blush renewed itself, this time for very different reasons. “You can go, you don’t need to watch me!” The moment he saw Seokmin’s brows knot together he knew he had tripped over some absurd protectiveness line, and he tried to tug his hand away to protect his dignity. “I’m fine!”

Still frowning, Seokmin floated closer, keeping him there by one hand. “Are you okay?” he pressed, tugging Jisoo close. “Are you having a cramp, or did you graze yourself against a rock perhaps? Here, let me see your feet okay? Is that why you were floating?”

Jisoo struggled and splashed to get away from the hands; instead, as he twisted, the one reaching for a foot landed on his right hip instead, fire-warm against the cold, silky feel the lake water had imparted to his skin. He gasped at the feel of it, stilling immediately in case he somehow twisted into a worse position, and watched as light dawned in Seokmin’s eyes… well, figuratively at least.

“Oh,” Seokmin said softly, almost throatily. He didn’t move his hand; it looked as if his brain was racing to keep up with his limbs. “Oh. I see.”

Moments thudded past painfully as they drifted there; Jisoo began to be afraid that he had somehow broken the vampire. “…Seokmin-ssi?” he questioned doubtfully, and gasped as the hand on his hip bit in reflexively. It wasn’t painful, quite the opposite, and his heart thudded into overdrive again. It had been a long, _long_ time since anyone had touched him like that. “Seokmin-ssi, you’re not saying anything?”

The hand on his hip abruptly started and moved to his waist for safer purchase; Jisoo rather missed its heat where it had been, as embarrassed as he was.

“I didn’t know you were skinny-dipping,” Seokmin muttered, letting go of his wrist, then his waist. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have interrupted you. I’m really sorry.”

“Well, someone didn’t really give me time to go and get swimming trunks,” Jisoo said, humour trickling back into him. Far from put out, Seokmin seemed so embarrassed that it was almost funny. “And I don’t want to sit around with wet pants on later on.” The little devil deep inside him stirred. “Seokmin-ssi, could it be you’ve never touched even an accidentally naked man before?”

Seokmin’s voice sounded sulky. “Now you’re just teasing me.”

Jisoo managed to laugh, and something in his chest unknotted. “Just because I look like a church oppa doesn’t mean I’m a good person!” he pointed out laughingly. “If Hannie was here he’d laugh himself dead to hear that’s what you th…” An abrupt splash of movement dried the voice in his throat; somehow Seokmin was so close now their legs tangled as they floated there, and there were two hands on his hips.

“I was _trying_ ,” Seokmin managed, “to be a gentleman.”

Jisoo couldn’t find his voice. Even in the dark, with only light touches of their calves together, it brought up memories of Lee Seokmin’s body, how strong and solid and muscled he was; he had known as much earlier, but it was only now with hands nearly meeting around his waist and fingers biting into the sway of his back that he _understood_ he was teasing something that could tear him apart as easily as catch him falling from a ladder.

“But if you don’t like gentlemen…” The touches intensified as Seokmin floated a little closer; it went from calves gently brushing to a broadly muscled thigh creeping up between his knees, stopping to hover there before it touched anything too sensitive.

Jisoo’s mind raced with the memories of earlier, how wide his thighs had had to split around Seokmin’s waist during the piggy-back ride, the firm roil of muscles and strong back he had pressed himself against. His mouth fell open, arousal flaming in the pit of his belly; he wanted to press down on the thigh and grind against it.

_Oh my god since when do I have a muscles kink? Why is it turning me on so much that he’s so strong?_

“Jisoo-ssi,” Seokmin’s voice came as he leant a little closer; all Jisoo could see was a tangle of lake-wet black curls and eyes turned amber-bright by the moonlight. “Are you the one suddenly struck mute?”

“Now you’re the one teasing,” Jisoo managed to breathe out; his hands fluttered to rest on Seokmin’s broad shoulders. “Don’t tell me you’re going to flick my earlobe now as well.”

Seokmin’s grin in the moonlight didn’t seem so sunshine-filled anymore. Jisoo stopped thinking as the vampire leant in to him and tilted his head. Seconds later a warm, wet, velvety softness wrapped around his earlobe; he cried softly as it got sucked on, and his fingers bit into Seokmin’s shoulders as he felt teeth gently nibble on it. They weren’t touching anywhere else, just hands and legs and earlobe, but it was the most sensuous thing he had ever felt, that slow, steady pull at his earlobe.

Minutes – days? – later, Seokmin pulled away and huffed a gentle breath over the wet, stinging flesh; the prickle of cold there surprised a low groan from Jisoo’s mouth. He heard a satisfied chuckle before the hands on his waist slowly pulled him away, depriving him of the thick thigh between his legs. All that supported him was his hands on Seokmin’s shoulders, and he was guiltily aware that he was very, _very_ aroused.

“Come out when you’re ready, okay?” Seokmin murmured. “Not too much longer, we’re going to be eating in a few.”

Jisoo still couldn’t find any words as the vampire swam away. Reaching to wipe at his face, he groaned long and low as his belly tightened and ached with need. Suddenly, he didn’t worry so much about surviving to match Hannie’s lifespan; he would be more than grateful if he could survive the next few _minutes._

* * *

Seungkwan wasn’t quite sure why Soonyoung gave Hansol an evil glare when they made their way into the house late that night, but his boyfriend was winkled from his side with the promise of a talk, leaving him to wander into the room pointed out to him with a slow saunter. Peeking inside, he saw Jihoon- _hyung_ and Hannie- _hyung_ holding court on the sofa; Jun- _hyung_ was a little further from the fire, with Minghao- _hyung_ curled up on his lap as ageless eyes looked into the fire.

For a second Seungkwan wondered what he saw there; as Minghao’s eyes shifted to gaze at him and his smile turned small and mysterious, Seungkwan stopped wondering immediately.

“Now that’s a freshly sexed strut if ever I’ve seen one,” Jeonghan drawled lazily as he raked a gaze up and down Seungkwan. “From the way you’re listing…”

Jihoon cleared his throat noisily. “We don’t talk about that in this good Christian household,” he said loudly. “I don’t need to hear about my son being defiled by that mangy mutt.”

Accompanied by Jun’s cackle from the side, Seungkwan’s mouth gaped open, and his ears flushed red. “ _Hyung_!” he said desperately. “He doesn’t defile me! It’s just…” One hand flopped in the air as he tried to explain it, but he failed miserably, and went to sink down on the carpet in front of the fire. “He’s not a mangy mutt,” he sulked. “He’s nice, and sweet and… and… he’s really nice! And I’m not your son! I’m more like a little brother!”

“Ah, Seungkwanie,” Jeonghan muttered, reaching to pet his head. “We’re just teasing you, okay? You’ve not been drinking too much of his blood though?”

“He has not,” Minghao muttered mysteriously from the side. “No signs yet.”

Seungkwan boggled. “No,” he said reluctantly. “Only once, so he could explain to me what it was like. He didn’t want to, afterwards. He said it affects me too much.” He sighed. “He’s nice,” he muttered. “I like him. A lot.”

“You can see the changes, Minghao-ssi?” Jihoon asked curiously.

“My baby’s an Ancient,” Jun said proudly, arms nipping in a little around Minghao’s waist. “I’m just a pleb next to him.”

Minghao’s expression was dignified, as if he was used to Jun boasting about him and embarrassed by it, but also not in the mood to scold. “Age begets power,” he explained. “It is carried in the blood, yes, but that blood gets more concentrated as we age and enrich it, like a sort of genetic memory. Even for you – the more a human has it, the more he or she matches us. Jeonghan-ssi, you are closer than you think to us; your mate is very old and strong. The same with Jihoon-ssi; you are already changing so much, did you notice the increased strength and speed?”

Jihoon nodded quietly, folding his legs underneath himself.

Seungkwan coloured as Minghao’s wise eyes fell on him. “It was just the once,” he insisted. “Really. I promise.”

“I know,” the Ancient said. “But his blood is wild, very strong; see that you don’t have any more of it until you understand the ramifications.”

Jun’s arms tightened again. “Xingan,” he whispered softly into Minghao’s neck. “You’re frightening the boy.”

Seungkwan wanted to protest that he wasn’t frightened at all, but he knew in his gut that it would be a lie. As often as they made love, as often as they _fucked_ , he wasn’t nearly ready for kids yet. He still had so much to do, like become a real historian, and he’d have to face going back to Korea at the end of the year. “Yes, _hyung_ ,” he muttered softly, and scrambled to his feet. “I think… I think I’m going to go call my mom quickly. May I use the phone in the other study?”

Jihoon smiled up at him and reached to squeeze his hand. “Sure,” he said. “Tell her I send my love, and she’s still invited to come and visit.”

Seungkwan nodded wordlessly and left; the door closed before he saw the expression Jihoon had on his face as he turned to gaze at Minghao.

“He’s unusually susceptible,” the Ancient said without prompting. “Even with only a few drops of blood. I wonder if he doesn’t have vampire DNA somewhere in him, or some residual magic.” He fell silent for a moment, pondering. “We’re on the edge of a renewal,” he finally said. “Your kids and Jeonghan’s kids and his. If it’s done right, if it’s done with love and acceptance, we might yet see our days return. I simply do not wish for it to hit him because of an accident. It’s his choice, it has to be.”

Jeonghan tilted his head slightly. “How old are you?” he demanded baldly. “And how are you seeing all these things?”

Minghao turned away as if the questions pained him, choosing to close his eyes and snuggle under Jun’s chin. It was Jun that answered them. “Ge-ge reads auras,” he explained. “And he was born the Yellow Emperor’s grandson. That was almost four and a half thousand years ago so please… be gentle with him? The ages weigh so heavily on him already. Please.”

The room fell silent for a long time before Jeonghan jerked his chin in agreement.

* * *

Jisoo wrapped a coat around himself and quietly left the manor, seeing a little escape from the craziness inside. Soonyoung and Seungcheol had conspired to drag Hansol and Chan in for The Talk; he had no desire to hear about vampire reproduction, especially not when the questions had turned fairly explicit from the start. Nor did he wish to join the others – he had seen Seungkwan slink out of the room, and absolutely did _not_ want to know why he looked so downcast. Instead, grabbing a torch, he set out over the lawn to the ornamental garden close by. The flowers were _beautiful_ ; he had heard that Soonyoung had had it planted because roses reminded him of Jihoon. Whatever the reason, he felt almost at home as he wandered into the night-dim garden to the centre.

He sat there for a long time, pondering nothing much at all, before a noise came. As he looked up, a large creature entered from the other side of the garden. It looked to be a wolf, sleek and well-fed; he had just gotten read to scream and run when it padded over to him and flopped down over his feet with a great big huff.

Jisoo didn’t know much about wolves, but under the light of the torch it seemed young still for all that it was absolutely huge. Male too – perhaps a stray wolf? There had been mentions of packs on the grounds. When he carefully essayed a pet of the wolf’s head it did nothing much at all, merely rested there quietly warming Jisoo’s feet for him.

It was perhaps a quarter of an hour later when the wolf got up and wandered away the way it had come; Jisoo grimaced at the stray hairs on his jeans and rubbed his hands clean on his thighs. “Weirdest wolf I’ve ever seen,” he muttered to himself.

“How so?” a voice asked him from the dark; it was unknown but friendly, and he looked up as two tall men wandered into the rose garden. The tallest hunkered down on his haunches a little distance away and gave him a beaming grin, complete with tiny little fangs. His companion said nothing, merely looked at him; next to his friend he was almost as slim as Jisoo.

“I’m Mingyu,” the first man said happily as Jisoo pondered whether to scream for help or still run away. “And this is Wonwoo. You’re new here. I haven’t smelled you before.”

Jisoo’s lips pinched firmer, tolerance for supernatural shenanigans at an all-time low. “I’m Hong Jisoo,” he said tightly. “And if you’re not expected by the people in the house, you’re in a great deal of trouble.”

“ _Hyung_ ,” ‘Mingyu’ pouted up at the man behind him. “I don’t think he likes us.”

The other man – Wonwoo? – managed a small smile and a pat on Mingyu’s shoulder. “That’s because you’re behaving like a savage and scaring him, pup,” he rebuked gently before he turned to Jisoo. “My pardon for intruding like this. We are expected there, they bid us come as fast as we could, so we took the first flight and came at top speed. Is my son there? Hansol? He’ll vouch for us.”

Clarity dawned. “You’re Hansol’s parents?” He scrambled to his feet, dusting himself off again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. Ah…”

The air prickled with sudden tension. Jisoo watched as Mingyu easily curled to his feet in a single, powerful surge of muscle with a sudden flash of fangs. He jerked back, opening his mouth to ask a question, when another shape melted out of the night.

Lee Seokmin wandered up to them in a slow, steady pace. “Jisoo-ssi,” he said easily. “Are these intruders?”

Mingyu’s snarl turned to a low, rolling growl, but his husband was quick to place a hand on his shoulder; despite that, the three didn’t back down.

Jisoo felt something snap. “Oh, for god’s sake,” he said loudly, pushed past his patience by the posturing. “Stop it! All of you, stop growling! You’re adults, not childhood playground rivals trying to piss furthest over the swing set! I’ve had it up to my neck with vampire stuff today, okay?”

Silence fell; all three of them were looking at him intently.

He lifted a hand to point at the newcomers. “These are Hansol’s parents,” he said to Seokmin with meted tones. “They’re here to help. They didn’t threaten me.” The finger swung to Seokmin, and he looked at the pair. “This is Lee Seokmin, who’s here for the same reason and invited by the same people as you are.” His finger wiggled in a circle. “We’re all friends here, right? Let’s try to play together well, okay? Now, and I ask this with great respect, can you just push off to the house and leave me? All the testosterone is souring the roses’ smell.”

He watched as Wonwoo scooted Mingyu away like a big puppy; from the way the taller of the two looked back at him with some fascination, he had never seen a human talk back.

_Get used to it, buddy,_ Jisoo thought with a certain internal amount of frustration, before he turned to face Seokmin, one eyebrow arching.

“I’m sorry,” Seokmin said gently. “I’m really sorry today was so bad for you. It was frightening and strange… I’m really sorry.”

Jisoo’s temper foundered and ran dry. He had never been an angry person; the outburst stripped him of that fire and he sighed. “It’s not your fault, is it?” He bit his lip and sat down on the bench again, huddling in his coat. “I’m sorry I snapped. Did Jeonghan send you to see where I am again?”

Seokmin moved to sink down on the bench next to him. “No, I just wanted to see,” he admitted. “And then I saw them, and I got frightened for you, and frightened you even more in bursting in like that.” He paused. “Is there anything that’s going to make you feel better about this? We can’t help what we are.”

_My problem isn’t what you are,_ Jisoo thought darkly. _It’s that I know and I’m attracted nonetheless._

“Can I see your fangs?” he asked finally. “I don’t want to ask the others, for all I know it’s some kind of taboo, but you literally caught me skinny-dipping, so I figure I can’t embarrass myself anymore in front of you.”

Seokmin’s laugh was low, but kind. “No problem,” he said happily. “Just don’t nick yourself if you decide to touch.”

Jisoo watched with fascination as the vampire turned his head towards the moonlight. It took a moment to see, but as he leant closer he finally saw the fangs. They seemed to grow from the canines in his jaw, curving very slightly, but were needle-sharp at the ends. “Wow,” he muttered. “And you use them to drink blood like in the movies?”

“Not quite, they’re not hollow. They just pierce the skin so that I can suck out the blood. I’ve not done that in ages though, we survive quite well on animal blood. These days it’s mostly only done between pairs or courting couples.”

Jisoo grinned. “Like Seungkwanie’s neck?”

Seokmin nodded. “Precisely,” he said with a snicker. “And not just on his neck, which is why Hansol’s getting The Talk along with Chan, just to make sure he’s not hurting Seungkwanie.”

Jisoo nibbled on his lower lip. “I’m going to regret this,” he muttered. “But now I’m too curious. Where else?”

It was a long time before Seokmin answered. “May I touch you? Sorry, I will answer, it’s just that you’re shivering and it’s distracting me.”

Blinking, Jisoo looked down. He hadn’t even noticed the coat coming off in the stand-off earlier. Hesitantly he nodded, and yelped softly when strong hands bit in around his waist and picked him up with zero effort before resting him on Seokmin’s lap. His face flamed as memories surged anew; the vampire’s thighs were absolutely heavenly, and he had to stretch to perch there. “Um,” he got out as Seokmin’s hands settled on his waist, before one reached to get his coat and drape it around his shoulders protectively. Biting his lip, he inched forward just a tad, and nearly moaned as the muscled thighs beneath him parted a little, spreading his legs wider to provide him a more comfortable seat.

“He bit Seungkwanie on his femoral, do you know where that is?” At Jisoo’s head-shake he tapped one of his slim thighs, fingertips tap-walking up it to press deeply into a spot almost at Jisoo’s groin. “There. It might feel good and it’s kind of sexy, but one slip-up there can cause a lot of damage.”

Jisoo’s head spun between the warmth of the fingertips and the scent of the roses and Lee Seokmin himself. “Oh,” he said hesitantly. “That’s… um. You’re playing with me again?” He lifted his gaze to meet Seokmin’s, and tried not to pout as he saw the other’s bright smile. “You are!”

Seokmin’s laugh was very soft, not the bright sunshine laugh of earlier but something more intimate, a knowing kind of chuckle. “A little,” he teased. “But only a little. If I really wanted to tease you, I would have done something else entirely.”

Swallowing, Jisoo tried to hold on to his control. His earlier impression of the man as a naïve, sunny, dim kind of guy had totally shattered; he wasn’t sure when he had first seen beneath the mask but he liked it. His belly felt tight and fluttery with arousal. He cleared his throat again. “Like what?”

It wasn’t words that answered him. Instead, very gently, Seokmin braced a large hand against his back and spread his thighs wider, until his fingers could trace the inseam of Jisoo’s jeans. He did so, one broad thumb pressing and caressing insistently up it, strongly massaging the hidden muscle there until it curved up slightly, only to press down in a spot nearly in the fold between hip, leg and groin. “Here,” he said softly, massaging it insistently with his thumb. “Right here. The blood flows so well here, and you can drink your partner’s arousal, feel it thick on your tongue.”

“Holy shit,” Jisoo squeaked out, head hanging back, voice strangling at the sudden, intense feeling of it. “Holy _shit_.”

“And when you bite there, and you time it just right, you can taste it when your partner falls apart,” Seokmin murmured, still deeply massaging the spot. “It leaves a bruise if you do it right, and they feel it until it heals, and you can watch them squirm as they go around in public, and you know they’re remembering how you fucked them.”

Jisoo wasn’t sure how he wasn’t coming in his pants already. Seokmin had one of the best voices he had _ever_ heard, rich like a trained singer and intent.

“Jisoo-ssi,” he heard that magical voice. “I know it’s early days, but… do you think I might kiss you?”

Jisoo nodded desperately and straightened, falling forward pliantly against Seokmin’s chest. He was too turned on to make it soft and gentle; instead the kiss turned a little sloppy and wet and deep. He wiggled closer for more, moaned into the vampire’s mouth as he felt a hand rest on his ass to curl him close. More, _more_ until he was panting and shivering and dizzy from lack of breath, overheated enough that his cheeks were pink enough to spot under the moonlight.

Seokmin leant to kiss his neck, then his shoulder; when he pulled it down a little to nip very gently at Jisoo’s collarbone Jisoo gasped with the pleasure of it. “Seokmin-ah,” he whispered, petting at the vampire’s broad shoulders. “More kisses, please?”

As an answer, Seokmin turned to press his back down into the bench, one large hand curling Jisoo’s leg up against his waist. He leant in to kiss him again, tiny exquisite ones until he bit into Jisoo’s lip to tug his mouth open and slip his tongue inside.

Jisoo mewled as Seokmin’s hand bit into his thigh; he relaxed back against his other arm as it pillowed his neck and opened his mouth willingly, frantically suckling on his tongue. It was delicious and drugging; the vampire’s hips were slowly grinding into his arousal with steady surges, and he felt deliciously large; the thought of having to stretch open for something of that girth made him moan low and soft.

Time drifted past in a whisper of kissing; Jisoo was almost on the edge of coming when Seokmin pulled his mouth away and sat up. “…Seokmin-ah?” he questioned hesitantly, and saw his debauched reflection in dark dark eyes. “Sorry, was that too much?”

“A little,” Seokmin got out, voice gravelly with arousal. He reached to massage a slip of Jisoo’s belly where his shirt had ridden up, carefully gentle little pets to the soft skin there. “I want to, I _really_ want to, but not on a bench, alright? It’d be too uncomfortable for you.” His thumb tickled lower and lower, brushing in beneath the waistband to press a spot low on his belly, massaging insistently there. “Maybe a bed?”

Jisoo panted at the slow massage against his tummy. It felt _delicious_ , enough to keep the arousal simmering. “There are…” He gasped at a deep, probing touch, one leg lifting to rest over one broad shoulder. “There are over nineteen bedrooms and fifty other rooms, surely there must be _one_ somewhere far enough away that they won’t hear us.”

Seokmin gave a light, delighted chuckle and leant in to kiss-kiss-kiss at Jisoo’s belly. “Don’t be silly,” he teased gently. “With the libidos on our lot, I’d be surprised if half the people there don’t walk funny tomorrow morning.”

Jisoo’s cheeks stung; he had been privy to the sounds of what Hannie sounded like when Seungcheol had his hands on him more than once; he didn’t want to repeat _that_ anytime soon. Pulling his leg back, he sat up slowly, running his hands through his hair and tugging at his shirt to make sure he didn’t look too dishevelled. “Nasty,” he chided before his confidence wobbled a little. “If you don’t want to…” That’s as far as he got. In the next moment one of his hands rested on Seokmin’s lap, curved over the hot, thick length there.

“I want to,” Seokmin said simply. “I’ve wanted to since I saw you in the queue at the airport.”

“Bed,” Jisoo decided with an alarmed squeak as Seokmin nudged the length up into his palm. “Bed, _now_.”

* * *

Jihoon wiped the last of the moisturiser into his skin and looked over his shoulder as Soonyoung entered the room with a disturbingly evil cackle. “What?” he demanded as he stood, pulling off his dressing-gown to get into bed. He was still a little upset from the discussion earlier with Minghao-ssi; he didn’t trust anyone that smiled as if they knew all the secrets, and then Hansol’s parents had arrived and it was loud and noisy, and he had only escaped after Mingyu had hugged him three times. And then pinched his cheeks.

Not even a shower had cooled that indignity.

Jihoon puffed his cheeks out with irritation, sticking his feet in underneath the summer-weight blankets, and nearly lost the fat container of salve as he tried to butt-walk over to the middle of the bed. Aggravated, he was about to toss it when he felt Soonyoung touch him gently, helping him into position and slipping in behind him, so that he could lean back against his chest. His husband gently pulled the shirt up out of the way and grabbed the salve, tickling kisses into his neck before rubbing some of the salve onto his belly.

The smooth, cool strokes relaxed him slowly; Jihoon sighed softly and nestled back a little more, allowing Soonyoung to seep the tension out of his skin. The slow, massaging motions felt heavenly, almost lulling. “So what did you see?” he asked sleepily minutes later. “Outside? That made you laugh?”

Soonyoung stifled another laugh into his neck. “Seokmin-ah had Jeonghan- _hyung_ ’s friend over his shoulders and he was running off towards the east wing,” he murmured. “I’m thinking they were looking for a quiet, personal spot.”

Jihoon pondered that, surprised and pleased. “Oh,” he said happily, and mumbled with pleasure as Soonyoung delicately teased at his nipples. “Oh, that’s nice.”

“Mhm,” Soonyoung said oh-so-innocently. “But that’s what you’ve been planning, right? With Jeonghan- _hyung_? I saw how you looked at Jisoo-ssi when we came back from the lake. I think my soft, soft little kitten is being corrupted by his Hannie- _hyung_.”

Jihoon didn’t bother to refute that, it was the truth. Instead he grinned. “Youngie,” he wheeled. “Will you give me a massage? My back is aching a little.” He took the tub of salve from his husband’s hands and sat up, then turned to sit on his lap and cuddle close, as close as he could with the bump between them. He grinned evilly as he leant in to kiss his poor husband sweetly on the corner of his mouth. “Is that okay?”

Soonyoung swallowed, hands shaking as he pulled his kitten closer. “Anything you want,” he promised.

“Oh?” Jihoon asked, voice still sweet and soft. “In that case I’m going to want you to fuck me gently until I sleep, and if I wake up tomorrow morning without your cock in me I’m going to be _very_ unhappy. So pamper me, okay? Corrupt or not?”

Soonyoung practically dove him flat, still careful of his belly, and placed tickling little kisses over the sensitive spots in his neck to make him giggle. “Your wish is my command,” he declared extravagantly, and set to fulfilling his husband’s wishes.

* * *

Jisoo wasn’t sure where they were. They had stopped for essential’s in Seokmin’s room and he had been hoisted over his shoulder; somewhere in there they had passed Soonyoung, who only wiggled eyebrows at them and jerked his thumbs to the most remote part of the house, much to his eternal embarrassment. They had eventually stumbled across a cold, dark room but hadn’t stopped there; instead Seokmin had carried him onwards into the bathroom and turned on the light, putting him down before rummaging in a cupboard.

Watching, Jisoo sank down on the rim of the bathtub and eyebrowed the vampire. “The bathroom?” he asked. “you want to do it in a _bathroom_? I thought you were aiming for a bedroom?”

Seokmin emerged from the cabinet with a large bottle in his hands; turning, he opened the hot water tap to start filling the tub. “I love civilisation,” he said happily. “God bless people that have bubble bath in all their bathrooms.” He leant down to kiss Jisoo as he straightened. “And yes, I want to do it in a bathroom,” he promised against his lips. “And on the bed, and in the shower… but the hot water will relax you. I don’t know how long it’s been since you did this.”

Jisoo tilted his head into the kisses and sighed afterwards. “Too long,” he said. “And it wasn’t exactly stellar the first time, if you get what I mean.”

Seokmin’s expression clouded a little. “You can stop me,” he offered. “Whenever you want to stop. I have no problem with sucking you off, or you can top, I don’t care.”

The possibilities intrigued Jisoo, tickled down into the morass of dim fantasies he had. “Perhaps,” he murmured as he stood. “But not this first time. Let’s try the bath first, okay?”

Seokmin was solid muscle under the shirt, pecs defined and broad, back strong. His skin was a few shades darker than Jisoo’s, which made his mouth water to think of the contrast of his hands on the pale, fragile skin of his inner thighs. The image turned his hands clumsy, but he managed to get all the buttons before he skimmed his hands over Seokmin’s broad shoulders, taking the shirt with him. It fell unheeded as his hands trailed over his shoulders and admiringly down his arms, fingertips tracing over hard, defined biceps. “You’re beautiful,” he murmured, somewhere between overwhelmed and admiring.

“I like you better,” Seokmin murmured back, pulling Jisoo’s shirt over his head. “Your shoulders are almost as broad as mine, but you’re still beautiful with your muscle.”

“Really?” Jisoo asked, standing on tiptoe to sneak a kiss as his hands fell to Seokmin’s waistband. He undid it, pulling it apart just enough to sneak one hand in in search of that hot length he felt before. Finding it, mind spinning at the sheer girth, he groaned hungrily into the kiss. Seconds later, when Seokmin stood back, he had to blink before he glared up at him. “I was enjoying that, excuse you.”

“Water,” Seokmin strangled out. “Water. Bath.”

Jisoo blinked. “Oh.” Standing aside, he watched as Seokmin poured in the bubble-bath, testing the temperature of the water and adding a bit of cold water. He felt just a little miffed, but Seokmin pulled away after a minute and sat down on the rim of the bath this time, reaching to pull Jisoo closer by the hips.

“Hold still,” Seokmin ordered, and reached to slowly unbutton his jeans. The button went, and the zip slowly descended; he leant in to mouth kisses against Jisoo’s tummy as his hands slipped inside the waistband, skimming over his hips and under his briefs, until both large palms settled on his backside. Very carefully, but very expertly, they parted him and one finger tickled down the valley, pressing over his pucker for a moment before teasing over the soft, sensitive skin behind his balls. “Mmm,” the vampire murmured against his belly, seemingly entranced enough to gently tap-tap-tap the fingertip there. “You’re wet already?”

Jisoo felt gut-punched, body crowding over Seokmin’s head as arousal pulled his belly into a tight curve. The gentle taps turned a little harder, and then Seokmin moved, lifting him somehow with just the hand beneath him; Jisoo’s belly thumped down onto his shoulder as he kept up that gentle fingering, other hands pulling pants and boxers down. “Oh my _god_ ,” he squeaked, hands reaching out desperately for something to balance himself. “Fuck… stop it, stop _it I’m going to come…!”_

Seokmin muffled a laugh into the closest curve of Jisoo’s ass, nipping gently at it. “Not yet,” he teased as his fingertip trailed through slick precum and back up to the tiny hidden hole there. “Not until I’m here,” he promised, slowly glossing the rim with the slick on his fingers. Content, he pulled Jisoo down again, setting him in the warm water. He watched him balance, knees shaky as a new-born faun, before he stood to strip himself.

Jisoo fought the desire to curse him out. Seokmin’s earnest playfulness felt as if it was drugging him; he couldn’t remember ever being so turned on. “I…” His mouth snapped shut and he _looked_ ; Lee Seokmin was a carved statue, a thing of greater beauty than he had ever seen. Strong shoulders, chest and arms, yes, but his thighs were magnificent, rippling with muscle as he stepped closer. Narrow hips, but that wasn’t what had quieted him. Instead, the thick hot length that slapped against muscular abs silenced him; the head was red and shiny with arousal, already dripping precum, and it was large enough that he didn’t know how it would fit. “Shit,” he got out, eyes widening.

Seokmin stepped into the bath with him and settled down, legs spreading wide, before he pulled Jisoo down on his lap. “Relax,” he whispered. “Just warm up and relax.”

Somehow, Jisoo wasn’t quite sure how, he fit against Seokmin’s tall form, bellies pressed together and forehead drooped on his shoulder. His legs spread, curled around the vampire and he relaxed, trying to ignore the length that pressed against him from groin to above his belly-button. “Says you,” he murmured into the golden skin of Seokmin’s strong neck. “I’m not the one hung like a horse.”

Large hands patted delicately against his back and hips to make him relax. “Shhh,” Seokmin said again. He started massaging him, slow strokes down his back to the sway of his waist, then down over his tailbone to his hips and back. Over and over and over, until the combination of heat and touch had him feeling loose and warm and impossibly good. Little knots he didn’t know he had relaxed under Seokmin’s hands, until he felt pampered and petted, _good_ inside his skin like no one else had made him feel before. He was still aroused, desperately so, but it had melted into a larger feeling, one that had him languidly lipping and nibbling against Seokmin’s throat.

He didn’t stiffen up when the slow massage stopped, or when he heard the pop of a tube open. Instead he lifted his hips, arching his back, and quested backwards for the touch he knew was coming. Something slick dripped between his buttons, pooling against his rim. He moaned gently, sounding softer than he ever had, when one fingertip touched him there and gently rubbed the slick lube against the small hole. It felt just a little thicker than water, perhaps oil-based.

Seokmin patted him in the curve of his back as he opened him slowly and patiently, so very patiently. When Jisoo’s head tossed up as one finger slipped inside, he gently coaxed him down again; he murmured soft delicate compliments as Jisoo stretched enough to take two fingers, and when his hips hitched desperately and he cried as a third slipped inside him, Seokmin gently kept up the tempo, kissing his cheeks and lips and the curve of one cheekbone.

Jisoo felt _loved_ ; he felt that feeling well up as much as the arousal in his belly, and he teared up that his first experience hadn’t been nearly this good. “Minnie,” he groaned, hips swaying desperately. “Minnie, it feels so good, your fingers are so _thick_ , I…ah!”

Seokmin gently tapped against his prostate again, settling into slow, lazy rubs at it as if he had all the time in the world. “You’re so tight, baby, I have to make sure, ok? My heart would shatter if I hurt you. Does that feel ok? Do you think you can take a fourth one for me?”

Jisoo shook his head desperately; as much as he wanted to comply the gentle caresses were turning him inside-out; if another of those marvellously thick fingers were to breach him, he wasn’t sure he’d live.

Seokmin kissed the corner of his mouth again and slowly pulled his fingers out; when Jisoo whined and pressed his ass back to seek for them again he gentled him with soft pats and turned his head so that Jisoo’s forehead rested on his shoulders again. “Hold on, baby,” he muttered, and reached for the tube of lube again.

The feeling that rippled through Jisoo as he felt more lube gush into him made him scream; he bit down into Seokmin’s shoulders to muffle his needy moan. Two fingers pressed the extra lube deep inside, then three; when Seokmin finally squeezed his broad index finger in as well, he shivered and shook, so close to coming that a gentle breeze could push him over. “Minnie,” he wheezed out, tight. “Minnie please, I’m begging you, please, just a little harder. Please, I want to come!”

The fingers left him again and large, patient hands pulled his hips down. The whine in his throat hitched there as he felt something press inexorably against his rim, so much thicker than the fingers just inside him. He squirmed and jerked, gasping as he stretched and stretched, until the head finally popped in and he squealed at the feeling. Abruptly, mind spinning, he was grateful for the heat form the bath and the patient preparation; it didn’t hurt, simply stung in the best way as he shivered and danced, body slowly impaling itself onto Seokmin’s cock.

“That’s it, baby,” Seokmin soothed. “That’s it, come on. Take it slowly, greedy boy, not that fast…” His hands bit into Jisoo’s hips, slowing his descent and turning it into an inexorable, slick slide inside.

Jisoo’s words failed him. Instead, greedier than he had ever been in his life, he fucked himself down-down-down as fast as Seokmin would allow him; when the last little inches slid inside he felt winded and shocked, mind reeling that the huge length had fit inside him. Seokmin’s fingers moved to pet his rim, easing the stretched flesh with little pats and caresses, and he gasped at the tight, shivery feeling of it. His arousal felt like hot lava, inexorably slow and potent; he had to fight tears again. “More,” he whispered, wiggling his hips; his legs didn’t want to respond, just tightened around Seokmin greedily. “More please.”

He didn’t need to beg. Seokmin helped his hips up and down slowly until he got the rhythm of it. With each pull out he felt empty and fussed about it; when Seokmin surged into him again he moaned and whined, senses so confused that he lost track of everything but them. His world was just two people and a bath of hot water, and old worries and fears flowed out of him as Seokmin skilfully fucked him. In and out, keeping at that gentle pace, until he was so tight with anticipation that his hands fluttered and tried to pet at Seokmin, admiring his abs, his hands, the way his abs surged with every movement.

“Are you close, baby?” Seokmin muttered into his ear as he fussed and writhed; when he nodded desperately his lover stopped still, petting his body until he cooled down a little, regained his senses a bit. He blinked, tried to focus on Seokmin’s arousal-dark eyes as he hung on his thick cock, suspended in time. “Minnie?” he questioned. “don’t stop, please?”

His world flipped as Seokmin stood in the bath; the motion drove his cock deep into Jisoo and Jisoo screamed at the pure pleasure of it. There was a whir of motion and his back landed against cool linens as Seokmin pressed him into the bed. A bedside lamp clicked on, and he writhed to see Seokmin’s large, golden hands on his arousal-pink body. They lifted his legs, parted them until his knees pressed to his chest, and held them there as he was fucked furiously like that.

Seokmin was implacable, force so great that Jisoo’s toes pointed from the delight of it, waving in the air with each ramming thrust into him. Gone was the gentle lover of earlier, but he was so turned on, so _needy_ that his body took the force without complaint, gloried in it. His rim stung, grasping needily at the thick length penetrating it, and he wailed as a simple shift of position saw the large, fat cock-head scrape over his prostate with each move. He felt his world contract again, saw white behind his eyes and came with a long, despairing wail; his cum splashed on his chest and his thighs, mixing with the sweat pooling on his belly and slithering off in thin rivulets from the bump the massive cock hammered into him.

He vaguely heard Seokmin snarl, but couldn’t react. Instead, cock boring to its deepest into him, he felt splashes and jets of warmth as Seokmin’s seed started to fill him. The last tension in his body surrendered and he drooped beneath him, conquered, as he concentrated on the throbs of heat, ass working reflexively to milk him utterly dry. It felt like forever before Seokmin let him go a little; his legs were too limp to move so they fell open messily. A few gentle juts of the thick length in him had him creeling with overstimulation, and he felt lips ghost over his knuckles reverently.

“Minnie,” he managed to whisper, voice raw, and groaned when one hand settled on his belly to massage against the fullness there. “Mmmh, Minnie…”

Seokmin, still slowly pumping into him, pulled one hand closer to kiss the inside of his wrist. “Good?” he asked, thumb tickling into jisoo’s belly-button before moving to press on his abdomen again. “Better than last time?”

If Jisoo had not been so tired, he would have laughed. Instead, with a shiver, he reached to pull Seokmin onto him, sighing with happiness as his body’s weight pushed him down into the mattress. “Much better,” he mumbled into his neck, body buzzing with afterglow. “Do you want to bite me?”

Seokmin stilled against him, cock twitching, and with a groan he slowly shook his head.

Jisoo’s eyes were open, blindly staring at the ceiling as he felt Seokmin’s cock harden again, stretching him apart. Some devil inside him poked, prodded him into smiling, hands reaching pat Seokmin’s broad shoulders. “Perhaps from my femoral arte…ah! Yes, _yeeeees!”_ he moaned out as Seokmin started to fuck him slowly again.

“You asked for it,” Seokmin rasped into his ear. “Don’t count on any sleep tonight, baby.”

The next morning, when he couldn’t even limp, he had to suffer the indignity of being carried back to his room. No one saw, but Seokmin had an insufferably huge smile on his dumb face from that, and when he tucked Jisoo into his bed in the cool blue room, he couldn’t muster up the energy to hit him. Instead, curled up against the large vampire, he fell asleep to the sensation of his puffy, aching rim receive a thorough but delicate salving, and didn’t dream at all.

* * *

Seungkwan squeaked with fright as Hansol burst into the kitchen. It was very late at night, he had just come to make a cup of tea, and the clatter made him jerk back from the kettle. He hadn’t seen his boyfriend since earlier, not in the mood to speak to anyone after his conversation with his mother.

“Seungkwanie,” Hansol got out, expression panicked and eyes wide. “They’re here.”

Seungkwan’s stomach clenched. In days past he would have asked ‘Campus Security?’ without a second thought; now, in a house full of vampires with mysterious explosions and tensions, his mind darted to wilder options. “The military?” he asked as his mug clattered down on the counter. “Evil vampires?” His throat hitched tight. “An Illuminati hit-squad from the Vatican?”

Hansol paused, blinked and reached to carefully nudge the kettle of boiling water away from him. “Those were from _movies_ ,” he said plaintively. “They’re not real. The Vatican is more concerned with the dwindling number of parishioners and the debate on sexual equality than sending out death-squads. And no, not evil vampires either… well, my father’s pretty bad when he’s on a tear, but no.” He took a deep breath. “My parents. They’re _here_. I didn’t think they’d be here for another day or so, but they’re here.”

Seungkwan wasn’t quite sure what was worse, the death squads or his boyfriend’s parents. “What?” he squeaked out, eyes round. He glanced frantically down at himself and his sleeping gear: drawstring sweats and an old, ratty t-shirt. “Now?”

“They’re right outside. I can’t…”

The kitchen door slammed open and the tallest man Seungkwan had ever seen rushed in right at him. “Seungkwanie!” the man called out in a deep voice; in the next second there were arms around him and whoever it was had picked him up off the ground to squish him in a tight hug. His feet danced off the ground; it was all he could do not to kick things over as he got spun around and around. “Look at how cute you are, oh my god those cheeks I just want to pinch them, you look so much cuter than your Insta feed…!”

“Help!” Seungkwan got out faintly, trying to fight his way free from the arms constricting him. “Hansolie, help me!”

Hansol hesitated; it was the other man that walked into the kitchen that helped, deftly separating Seungkwan from the madman that had nearly choked him out with a hug.

Seungkwan huffed for breath and skittered away to hide behind his boyfriend, eyes large as he peeked past his shoulder.

“Jagi,” the shorter of the two men said calmly. “You can’t just go around hugging people like that, they’re going to think you want to end them.” He looked over his shoulder to Seungkwan. “I’m sorry. He just got a little excited, we’ve been hearing about you for some time now. I’m Jeon Wonwoo, Hansol’s father. This is my husband, Kim Mingyu.”

Mingyu, perhaps the most classically handsome person Seungkwan had ever seen, tilted to wave at him with a big, happy grin. There were fangs in that grin, teeny-tiny ones that made him look cute from a distance. Seungkwan didn’t move; he didn’t think he could unclench his hand from the back of Hansol’s t-shirt. “But… but you’re Chwe Hansol?” he said plaintively, not understanding.

“My great-grandmother’s surname,” Hansol said. “Sometimes we change identities to keep the normal authorities from suspecting things.” He eyed his parents, clearly unhappy from the cant of his jaw.

“Give me the doll, I want the doll,” Mingyu said, making little grabby motions towards Seungkwan. “I wanna squeeze his cheekies…”

Seungkwan squeaked again and dipped back behind Hansol; there was something about the manic energy that suggested Kim Mingyu was just a big puppy, and big puppies didn’t always know their strength.

Wonwoo gave a long-suffering sigh. “He’s been like this since Soonyoung- _hyung_ helped his husband escape,” he informed his son. “You know how he is about cute things.”

The groan Seungkwan felt through Hansol’s back suggested he knew exactly what his father was talking about; when he turned to haul Seungkwan out just a little, he wrapped his arm around his waist. “He’s mine,” he informed his dad flatly. “He’ll say hi if you’re nice, but don’t embarrass me anymore, okay? I don’t want him to run away before I’ve gotten to know him properly.”

Mingyu sniffed, grin fading, but nodded slowly. “Hello,” he said to Seungkwan. “I’m Kim Mingyu. Welcome to the family.”

“Daaad,” Hansol groaned.

Seungkwan blinked and had to fight a giggle at that. “Hello,” he said softly, lifting one hand. “I’m Boo Seungkwan. It’s a pleasure to meet both of you, sir. And, um, sir.” Moving free, he stepped forward to offer a hesitant hand to Wonwoo first. “Recently graduated from Busan National; I’m from the Jeju Boos.”

Wonwoo shook his hand very formally; there was strength in his grip but not too much. “Pleased to meet you,” he said formally. “I would count it as a great honour if you would not run away, and perhaps let him pinch your cheeks once.” Though his face remained straight, his eyes twinkled a little. He’s been raving about those photos with the little dog.”

“Oh,” Seungkwan got out softly, and hesitantly turned to Kim Mingyu. “You like Bookkeu? The little Maltese?” His glance flicked sideways to Hansol, who had his father’s half-smile on his face. “Um… okay?” One step, then the other, before he hesitantly tilted his head up.

Mingyu reached out, looking absolutely fascinated, and pinched Seungkwan’s cheeks once, very gently. “Soft,” he gushed very softly; he was as good as his word and his hands fell away, only to reach to hug Seungkwan again.

This time it was as gentle as the other time wasn’t, a mere fold of arms around Seungkwan’s fragile form. Seungkwan inhaled, smelling mint and roses and a faint cologne. Just from the hug he could tell where Hansol had gotten his build from; it was odd to think this tall, splendid man had once been cursed to live as a wolf just because he had pissed a witch off. “Pleased to meet you,” he mumbled, feeling warm and safe and surrounded. He didn’t see the helpless look Mingyu gave the top of his head, nor the soft smiles the other two had.

Later, getting into bed without the tea he had gone for, Seungkwan was scrolling on his phone as Hansol knocked and slipped inside his room. One hand had a mug of tea inside it; the other held out a couple of pills. “Supplements,” he muttered as he got onto the bed. “The _hyungdeul_ and my parents explained I should have been giving you these already; I’m sorry, Seungkwanie. You’re pretty much an instant hit with my parents though.”

Seungkwan took the tea and swallowed the pills; he had seen the fuss kicked up once when Jihoon didn’t take his. “They’re nice,” he mumbled into it. “And yeah, I had my own session too… well, a little bit. It’s going to feel weird going back to Jeju without all of this constant palaver.”

Silence grew before Hansol took a deep breath, moving to press his back against one of the posters of the bed. “What if you don’t go back?” he asked quietly. “Like Jihoon- _hyung_? I could speak to your parents and your sisters, and there’s so much work at Blendon that you can do as well since you’re interested in history and restoration.” He dropped his gaze to play with the light comforter’s edge, fingers delicate on the antique fringe. “What if… what if you stay with me?”

The mug in Seungkwan’s hand drooped to his lap as he stared at Hansol. For a moment it was all he could do to breathe. “Stay… with you?” he echoed. “In England?” He swallowed; it wasn’t something he hadn’t thought of before, but he knew he was a mama’s boy, and going into eternity without his family didn’t sound appetising at all. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “My sisters are working and settled, my mom might come over. I want to, Hansolie, but I don’t know, okay? There’s so much to think about.”

Hansol took another deep breath. “Could… do you think she’d be ok to speak to Jihoon- _hyung_ ’s parents about it? They can explain it to her from a parent’s angle, maybe answer some questions.” Another deep breath. “If you can’t, I can come to Jeju.”

Seungkwan boggled. “Hansolie,” he said carefully. “Jeju is a tropical island, you know that, right? You’d fry in the sun there.”

Hansol’s gaze darted to his. “I looked it up,” he said softly. “It’s not worse than London actually, although it’s more consistently sunny. I’ll be okay. Mixed breed, remember?”

Seungkwan stared dumbly at him, finally realising the depth of devotion the young vampire had towards him. Fine, the sex was fantastic and he took care of Seungkwan, but to offer to go to a place that might make him ill five months out of twelve every year… that took a lot of dedication. It warmed his heart; he could practically feel it shift in his chest as he finally realised that he might have found someone he loved enough to leave his family for. Someone that cared enough to bring his family _with_ , despite all the issues it might cause. “No,” he said very softly, fingers clenched around the mug. “No, that won’t be necessary. I’ll stay.” He managed a wobbly smile. “Of course I’ll stay with you.”

Eyes blazing, Hansol seemed frozen for a moment before he leant in to kiss Seungkwan delicately. “You mean that?”

Seungkwan set the mug to one side and pulled him closer, hands cramp-tight on Hansol’s narrow waist. “Of course I do, _pabo_ ,” he muttered through suddenly teary eyes. “As long as your family doesn’t mind and you’re ok with the constant plane tickets until I can persuade my parents to move, of course I’ll stay.”

Hansol beamed at him, thumbs wiping tears off Seungkwan’s cheeks. “My parents are already making plans to show you Venice,” he said happily. “Dad laughed himself sick when he heard of our duel, he wants to teach you properly. And it’s good you said yes, or I would have had to kidnap you until I could throw Blendon’s historical cache at you. Did you know we still have the original seal of Henry VIII on the licence to empark Blendon? And that we’ve got one of the largest collections of porcelain and Delftware outside the royal collection? Or…”

“Stop!” Seungkwan called, bubbling with happiness. “Oh my gosh, stop, it’s okay, I already said yes! Now, are you staying to cuddle tonight?”

Biting his lip, Hansol favoured him with a blinding grin as he walked fingers down Seungkwan’s back. “Are we cuddling or _cuddling_?” he asked, eyebrows wiggling.

“Oh… just get in under the blankets, okay?” Seungkwan pouted, smacking the tickling fingers away from his butt. “Just sleep! No sinning!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   * Re: Characterisation. Not all of SVT are going to be as they are in real life. These characters have had different circumstances. 
>   * The reveal of who Hansol's parents are. 
> 



	3. Chapter 3

Jihoon felt marginally better at life when he wandered downstairs the next morning. Most of their guests had decamped towards the closest town early that morning to buy necessities and oddities and whatever; from the report Soonyoung had given him before he departed it was just himself, Minghao-ssi and Seungkwanie in the house, along with the babies. From the way he had left with no large issues, his husband clearly considered Minghao-ssi more than enough protection for them. Even Jisoo- _hyung_ had gone with, though Soonyoung had reported with a great deal of laughing that he was moving like a crab and unusually snappy.

_Well, good for him,_ Jihoon thought as he meandered down to the ground floor. _And good for Seokmin-ssi._

He found the other two in one of the smaller sitting rooms towards the east of the house; the room was bright with sunshine but with angled drapes for the babies' health. Each of them had a baby on the lap as they played what looked like Monopoly; from what he could see Seungkwan was trying to keep the little boot out of Minseok’s mouth, and his sister already had a strand of jade jewellery in her mouth, gumming contentedly at it.

“You two look cozy,” he drawled as he closed in on them, foot shoving a pile of pillows closer so he could plop down on it. “Who’s winning?”

Seungkwan pouted at him. “Minghao-ssi is winning,” he complained. “He’s already gotten all the utilities.” He looked down at Minseok, jiggling him gently on his lap. “That’s right, honey, isn’t it? Nasty uncle Minghao is teaching your sister how to cheat, right? Can you say bad man? Bad man?”

Minseok, supremely unbothered, merely blew saliva bubbles and tried to get at the brightly-coloured cards.

Worried for a second – Xu Minghao was the oldest vampire any of them knew – Jihoon shot him a look and blinked.

The Chinese man was smiling gently, the softest expression he had ever seen on his face; from the fond look he gave Seungkwan he might as well consider the other a baby too. “I innocent,” he said softly. “You just sore you did not get electricity.” He glanced at Jihoon, one eyelid barely trembling in a wink, before he glanced down his body at his belly. It was only a brief glance, but what he saw there made his smile deepen, take on a satisfied curl, and he hugged the little girl in his arms very gently.

Seungkwan gasped, the dramatic little gasp he gave when he was truly comfortable around people. “I am not!” he called out, turning a woebegone expression onto Jihoon. “He’s cheating, I just don’t know how?”

Jihoon laughed at the two of them, shaking his head. It felt easier doing that, now that he was at home again. “I hear everyone else left for the town?” he queried. “Minghao-ssi, didn’t you want to go with? You’ve not seen it yet, have you?”

The Ancient shook his head slowly. “Happier here,” he explained, lips drooping to kiss Eleanor’s fuzzy black head. “And promise we made, protect you and the babies. Junhui goes, he finds much pleasure in new things.” He gently rescued a thin golden necklace from Eleanor’s mouth, giving her the jade again. “I not able to have kids of my own,” he mumbled out of the blue. “I try so hard, but could not find good vampire or woman until fall in love with Junhui, and he not able to have any.”

“Oh,” Seungkwan said quietly, sounding pained; Jihoon understood how he felt.

“Thank you,” he said, scooting just a little closer to pat Minghao on the shoulder. “For taking care of us.”

The game fell by the wayside as Minghao fussed with Eleanor. For a moment silence reigned, and Jihoon did not know how to break it.

Seungkwan leant in a little, arms still cradling Minseok. “But now you have two here you can be like a godparent too?” he said, wheedling. “And there’s Jihoonie- _hyung_ , he’s ready to burst any day. Twins, right?”

Jihoon lifted a foot to poke Seungkwan in the side, too lazy and comfortable to lean and smack him. “Excuse you,” he said drily. “You’re just lucky it’s not you, or you’d have a stomach to match your ass.”

Rather than take offense, Seungkwan merely stifled little giggly snorts into Minseok’s thin hair; the baby seemed utterly unbothered and it made Jihoon happy to see his friend had finally seemed to lose that hang-up about his body.

“They still two months away,” Minghao said unexpectedly from his side. “But babies very happy where they are, healthy and loved. They not in any hurry to come out right now. Content to grow strong first.”

Jihoon blinked, staring at him with wide eyes. “You can tell that?”

Nodding, Minghao scooted around the table the monopoly board stood on. “I can touch?” he asked for permission.

Fascinated, Jihoon nodded; Seungkwan leant in from the side as well as he drooped back into the couch a little.

Minghao reached to put a hand on Jihoon’s stomach, caressing it once before his hand shifted upwards. “Boy is here,” he said. “I see aura, very strong, very happy. He biggest of two.” His hand shifted again, this time off to Jihoon’s other side. “Little girl is here deep inside,” he murmured. “Not as strong as brother, more delicate. Aura is like jade in moonlight, very soft and beautiful. Brother hiding her behind his body, but I can see. They already awake, love to hear you sing.”

Jihoon bit his lip, fighting not to cry. “Thank you,” he whispered.

Seungkwan’s sigh was long and soft. “Lucky, Jihoonie- _hyung_ ,” he muttered. “I don’t…” He took a deep breath. “Hansolie asked me to stay,” he shared. “To stay forever, I think.” His breath hitched. “He offered to come to Jeju with me when I have to go back at the end of the year.”

Nerves flaring, Jihoon straightened, suddenly worried. “You’re going back?” he asked unhappily. “But I wanted you to stay too. I thought you knew by now that you have a home with us here. I don’t want you to leave Gunsloe, Seungkwanie. You have to stay and… and…” He swallowed, hating the hormones that made him so susceptible to tears.

“ _Hyung_ ,” Seungkwan said unhappily. “My work visa expires at the end of the year in any case. I said I’d stay here, but who knows how long another visa will take? And I have to explain to my mother… I thought we could perhaps invite her over here so she could speak to your parents, get their point of view, but I don’t know when that will be either. But I’ll certainly stay until the babies came, right? And then… and then you’ll be so busy with them and before you know it I’ll be back!”

Jihoon fought to breathe. “Seungkwanie,” he said very slowly and clearly. “Please tell me that you don’t think just because I might have children I’ll love you any less. It doesn’t work like that, okay? It literally doesn’t work like that. I would gladly pay for your family to move here, move in close to here. You’re the only brother I have. Of course I’ll miss you.”

From the side, Minghao said nothing at first. Instead, taking the babies that had begun to fuss, he put them down in their cari-beds close by before moving to hunker between the two of them. “You two listen,” he said, oddly commanding. “You two family in all ways that matter. You want to stay, Seungkwan-ah, I see it. So you stay here, you live with your Jihoonie- _hyung_ , okay? If problem with government, I sort out if others can’t. I see how you are with books and art and building here. Stay, become a conservator yourself, and everyone happy. I talk to mother, I explain. No issue.”

Seungkwan looked at the both of them, lower lip wobbly, before he lunged to dive them both flat, sheltering between their bodies. “I promise,” he sniffled into Jihoon’s shoulder. “I promise. Thank you, _thank you…_ ”

Breathing out a great, gusty sigh of relief, Jihoon hugged him close and met Minghao’s eyes over his body. ‘Thank you’ he mouthed to the ancient vampire, and pulled him into the cuddle as well.

* * *

“Joshuji,” Jeonghan whispered, waylaying him in one of the gift shops in the shopping street. “Joshuji, come here, come look at this cute snow-globe back here.”

Jisoo stiffened, eyes flicking for escape before he sighed and followed his best friend into the back of the shop. Of course a snow-globe wasn’t the main issue; Hannie wanted to gossip, and had grabbed the first chance he got. Slipping into the odd little nook next to him, he stared at the plush animals on the shelf and eyebrowed Jeonghan, willing him to get on with things.

“How was it?” Jeonghan asked very softly, eyes sparkling with excitement. “Was he gentle? Was it nice? You’re limping like a spavined horse.”

_Okay, clearly there’s going to be no escape from Reporter Yoon today._

Jisoo looked around the shop, just to check that no one was in listening distance, before he reluctantly smiled. “He was very good,” he said as quietly as he could. “And naturally I’m walking like this, he’s hung. I’m kind of surprised that my legs are functioning at the moment, they didn’t want to earlier, and I’m fucking _sore_ , so is that all you wanted to know, your nosy majesty?”

Jeonghan chuckled, low and remarkably lecherous. “Did I ever tell you about my first time with Seungcheol?” he asked. “There I was, but a poor innocent farmboy…”

Jisoo snorted at that. “You were never innocent,” he muttered quellingly. “And I’ve already heard what you sound like when he dicks you down, you’re about as quiet as a foghorn. I had to listen to the two of you that _entire_ West Coast tour! Frankly, I could have written a kink manual from the things I was subjected to there…”

Jeonghan stared at him, devilish eyes snapping with mirth. “You’re welcome,” he said happily. “Normally I charge for educations like that.”

Things tickled deep in Jisoo’s mind; he hadn’t heard much of Jeonghan’s past but if his friend was really as old as he said. “Hannie,” he said very quietly, reaching to grasp around one arm. “Hannie, you didn’t really, did you?” His heart pained suddenly; how could he even relate to something like that?”

Blinking, Jeonghan peered at him, until understanding dawned and his tongue clicked with supreme irritation. “I wasn’t a prostitute, for god’s sake,” he whispered, irritated. “The most I ever did was bat my eyelashes at a yeoman’s wife for an extra loaf of bread. I really was a farmboy! I just… we were a lot of children and so I ran away from home not only because it’d be one less mouth to feed, but because I already knew I didn’t want to marry the girl they were pointing me towards.”

Relief crashed through Jisoo. He haltingly removed his hand, patted his friend, and sighed. “I’m sorry. I just… I’m really sorry.”

One of Jeonghan’s delicate hands reached to cup his cheek. “I’m sorry too,” Jeonghan whispered. “I’ve had to hide a lot from you. When we get back tonight, how about I arrange for a babysitter and the two of us catch up? Just you and me and some wine like the old times? I’ve not had wine in a _year_.”

“I’d like that,” Jisoo got out. “I’d like that a lot.”

Jeonghan nodded; for a moment it looked as if Jisoo would escape before his friend looked around again, then dragged him a little deeper into the back of the shop. “So how was it? You said he was good? I’ll have word with him if he wasn’t gentle with you. I’m still angry at that asshole that you slept with the first time. You should just have had that threesome with Cheollie and myself instead.”

Jisoo bit his lip. “You keyed his Ferrari,” he whispered. “So it’s over, okay? And don’t mention that possibility ever again, please and thank you. Your husband’s brain would explode and I _really_ don’t want to think about being called ‘baby boy’ in bed.” He reached to look at the little carved cat figurine on the shelf. “He was really, really gentle. And thorough, you know?” His cheeks coloured. “Very forceful in the end but by then I was so gone I was literally begging for more.”

Jeonghan gave a wide, happy grin. “Yessss,” he hissed, giving a fist-pump before wiggling a finger. “And don’t kink-shame or I can tell Seokmin-ssi about that dream you had of doing it…”

“Doing what?” a restful voice asked next to them.

Jisoo almost shrieked as Seokmin materialised there; the kitten fell back onto the rack and he jerked away from Jeonghan. “Nothing!” he gabbled out, and reached to pinch at Jeonghan’s chest when his devilish best friend opened his mouth. “Look!” he said desperately. “Isn’t that Seungcheol waving over there?”

Perking, Jeonghan peeked and gave a wide smile. “Cheollie!” he called happily and thankfully trotted off.

Jisoo counted his mercies right until he felt a large, gentle hand rub slowly down his back before slipping into the back pockets on his jeans, making him freeze. He might have been sore, but body memory was a tough old biddy, and the touch had him shivering. It was such a possessive hold, openly a claim. “H..hey,” he stuttered out, looking up at Seokmin’s happy smile. “Sorry, we were just catching up, you know how it goes.”

“No,” Seokmin grinned, pulling him closer with the hand on his butt until he could slip the other one into the other pocket. Peeking quickly, he lifted him up a little, just enough for their lips to meet easily in a slow, heart-stopping kiss. “But Seungcheol- _hyung_ warned me I should probably come and check.” Pulling back, he placed a kiss against Jisoo’s nose as well. “Did you want something here? I’ll get it for you?”

_You,_ Jisoo thought, embarrassed. _You, right here._

He bit his lip and shook his head, reaching to wrap his arms around Seokmin’s waist.

Seokmin drifted a third kiss against his skin, this time on his forehead. “I got some stuff from the pharmacy if you’re still sore, baby. If you’re really sure you don’t want anything here, we can go and get you some lunch?”

Jisoo glanced at the shelf, cursed his body for being sore, and gave up the idea of riding against one of those magnificent thighs. Instead, grumbling internally, he reached out into the pile of plushies, pulled his hand back and glanced at the larger ones on the lower shelf. “Those ones, for the babies?” he asked as he pointed to two feline plushies. “But nothing for me, thank you.”

Smiling, Seokmin picked him up for another sweet kiss before he released him and nodded, reaching for the plushies.

* * *

Jun waited until all the younger ones piled into the house, purposefully slowing his steps so that he could trundle along the outside to the old stables instead, feeling the pull coming from there. Against expectation, when he stepped inside into the gloom his partner wasn’t dressed in the subdued, elegant robes he normally preferred. Instead he had put on some of the others’ clothes, and Jun sighed in appreciation. His Hao looked _really good_ in jeans and a slouchy sweater, even if the pants were slightly too short and likely Jihoon’s.

He meandered closer and sank down next to him on a cleaned bench, pressing shoulder and thigh against him before he lifted an arm to offer a hug, lips quirking into a smile as he got his wish. Even as ancient as he was, his Hao had no problems seeking out a hug. “Hm,” he muttered in the old dialect they spoke when it was just the two of them. “You smell good,” he muttered, pulling him onto his lap and pressing his face into Hao’s neck to nibble it gently. “Like powder and softness.”

“I played with the babies earlier,” Hao murmured. “It was nice.” He sounded very wistful.

Jun pinched his eyes shut. “I know you want some,” he muttered. “You should have put me off centuries ago to try and have some.”

Minghao shook his head once, firmly. “Never,” he said. “Never _ever_.”

Sighing, Jun stared at the distant wall of the dim stables. “Have you thought of trying again?” he asked, pulling Hao away to look at him seriously. “They know a lot more these days, and their medicine is so advanced. I’ve listened to them talk, that female doctor. They even understand the tiniest living blocks of human life these days.”

Minghao slumped and shook his head. “We tried that once, you remember? It backfired so badly we nearly caused a plague; your body took _years_ to recover from that, and with the People’s Republic running things these days, I don’t consider that a safe environment at all.”

Jun’s fingers shook at the memory of those years. It had been sheer desperation that had moved them; the injection he had received to try and augment his code made him so virulently ill that it had taken nearly all Minghao’s ancient blood to make him survive, and the super-immune illness he had unthinkingly spread had wiped out a whole village before they could even try to cure it. Still… “This isn’t the People’s Republic,” he said gently. “And there have been miraculous advances; we should at least check.”

“I’m not going to risk you again!” Minghao flared.

There was so much power behind his age that it felt as if the room dimmed and squeezed into Jun’s temples like an iron band. He breathed in and out very, very slowly, very deliberately. “It might be too late for me,” he said very carefully, staring directly into Minghao’s anger-bright eyes. “But not for you.”

Minghao’s anger blinked out from shock, and he knit his brows together into a frown. “What?” he said, sounding confused. “What do you mean?”

Jun took another breath. “You have unparalleled control over your body,” he said. “Over your blood, over all aspects of your being. You’re an _ancient_. In you runs the blood of the old ones, Hao-hao, of the times before the great flood that wiped out our histories. I can’t do it, but you? If you had help from modern medicine? Who’s to say you couldn’t have our children?” He watched as Minghao gaped.

“How long have you been thinking this?” Minghao whispered.

Sighing, Jun tilted his head back against the wall. “A few days since we came here. They’re forming a little community here, Hao-hao. We could be part of that. You know you said if everything is done with love and care our race could perhaps flower again. Don’t pretend you weren’t thinking of staying here and guiding the babies, if not the young ones.”

Minghao sniffled softly, reaching to pet at Jun’s shoulders. “I was,” he admitted. “We gave our word to protect them, and I’ve never seen you happier, running around chasing Chan and making bad jokes. It’s been good for you too, not just for me.”

Jun reached to tilt his head back, knuckle gentle under Minghao’s thin chin. “Let the People’s Republic have our nest and our money there,” he prodded. “You’re right, I’m happy here, happier than in the last couple of years.” He leant in to kiss his Hao very delicately on pursed lips, fangs nibbling gently until he could slip his tongue inside for a slow, lazy, promise of a kiss. He grinned as he pulled back, seeing angry eyes cloud with arousal instead. “Let’s chase the clouds and rains, hm? I’ve been _dying_ to pin you beneath me again.”

Minghao laughed softly, helplessly, the fond sound he saved for when it was just them. “I’ll talk to the doctor,” he agreed softly. “And yes, I’d love to hunt a few thunderclouds with you.”

“Why wait?” Jun asked persuasively as he shucked the soft, slouchy sweater off his partner’s chest, spreading it out on the ground nearby and pressing him down into it. “Prepare your gates, divine one,” he teased. “I’m about to lay siege to your treasures.”

Minghao giggled once, twice, and reached up hungrily.

* * *

One week passed, then two, gently flying away like lazy summer days were wont to do. With Jihoon growing increasingly tetchy as the end of his pregnancy loomed, and Soonyoung increasingly protective, Seungkwan had jumped in as best as he was able to. The restoration to the house itself had been put on hold; luckily he was able to swing the contracts around so that they wouldn’t incur cancellation fees, and had pointed them towards Siddeley’s damage instead, citing it as much more work.

Seungcheol had come to him to thank him personally for that, and had paid him a contractor’s fee that had made his eyes round. It had been enough money that he didn’t have to worry about lending anything, and he could send a considerable sum home to ease things for his mother; the office work wasn’t doing so well that she lived in the luxury he did, and it bothered him sometimes.

…not as much as it bothered him when he went to check something in the attic a few days ago and walked in on Hansol’s parents doing the horizontal mambo on a very familiar crate. _That_ had been scarring, and he had fled as quickly as he could.

She had called to thank him, and had mentioned that Jihoon- _hyung_ ’s parents had issued her an invitation to come and visit them again, and that she would be accepting it as soon as she could work up a little leave.

Touched, he had felt hope start to glow in his chest, and had redoubled his work for the _hyungdeul_.

Everyone seemed to be pairing off and concentrating on not only making sure all the babies (even Chan) were safe, but that there was a palpable aura of safety and protection to cocoon Jihoon in. It turned Seungkwan’s head at times, made him wish desperately for the long, lazy days of last Christmas when it had just been his boyfriend and himself.

It had taken Jeonghan precisely one look at him one morning in late August for his _hyung_ to summarily hold up a hand as he tried to chivvy into the study to work.

“Hold it,” he ordered. “Come here.”

Surprised, Seungkwan put his laptop down and trotted over. “ _Hyung_?” he said, glancing at Jisoo in the corner, then Jeonghan again. “Is something wrong?”

Jeonghan lifted his chin with a gentle fingertip, canting his face to and fro, before wrinkling his nose. “You’re taking today off,” he said summarily. “Go and find Hansol, pack a picnic basket, get out of here for a while, and screw your boyfriend silly.” He pressed his lips together when Seungkwan inhaled to say something. “No,” he said sternly. “Your cheeks are starting to disappear and you look tired. Jihoonie might be feeling bad, but he’d hate himself if he realised you were working yourself to the bone to keep things up and running.”

Seungkwan closed his mouth, guilt and embarrassment running through him. He hadn’t done anything with Hansol in almost a month, especially with his parents in the house. Not that _they_ had felt any restraint. “I don’t want to cause trouble,” he said unhappily.

Jisoo stood in the corner, turned him around by his shoulders, and gently patted his butt in little chivvying motions. “Hannie and I will take care of things,” he promised. “Go on. Scoot.”

Nibbling his lip, Seungkwan surrendered his laptop and went. He took a turn past the kitchen and his room, packing a few things he knew both of them enjoyed, and set out across the wide lawn towards the small hut they had once spent Christmas in. It took him some time to find again, things looked different in the late summer, but he eventually found it and slipped inside. He was short of breath by the time he had beaten all the pillows and blankets clean of dust, summarily plonking down on the pile as he sent a message on the phone.

_Meet me at the cabin._ He considered it, grinned guiltily, and added a few hearts behind it, along with a tiny peach and eggplant emoji.

It took perhaps five minutes before Hansol burst in, hair wild with a scattering of leaves.

Seungkwan took one look at him and laughed merrily. “Geez, how fast did you rush?” he teased as he reached out a hand to him. “Did you take out all the bushes between there and here?”

“My boyfriend texted me for a dick appointment for the first time in our relationship,” Hansol said as he tore his shirt off and tossed it off to the side, grinning like a loon. “I ran as fast as I could, naturally.” He paused, measured the distance between them and pounced, pressing Seungkwan into the pile of pillows and pressing kisses into the ticklish spots on his neck until his boyfriend was a squirming, giggle mess.

Trying not to shriek too hard at the squirmy kisses, Seungkwan spread his arms and his legs to pull Hansol close, eyelids fluttering at the pleasure of being pushed back into them by his boyfriend’s solid bulk. “Sorry,” he apologised. “Things are just so intense at the house right now, and I’ve been trying to fill in where I could to make things easier. I didn’t mean to neglect you. But Jeonghan- _hyung_ kicked me out and told me to take the day and… and I packed a picnic basket for us? And, um, a few _other_ things.”

“Oh really?” Hansol asked, raking the basket closer to peek into it. His bright smile spread wide as he poked through it, before guiding Seungkwan up to get rid of his shirt as well. “How much time do we have?”

Seungkwan shivered at the tone of his voice. “All day and night,” he said throatily. “I’m yours until tomorrow morning.” Swallowing, he lifted a foot to nudge at Hansol’s hip, then his shoulder, trying to regain his attention. “Will you knot me again?” he asked softly. “I miss that time we were in here the first time.”

Hansol turned to look at him, eyes old-gold. “Can I?” he breathed softly. “I’ve been wanking off incessantly, thinking about that.”

Seungkwan pouted at that, drawing his feet back so that he could edge his pants and underwear off; the heat low in his gut made him too impatient for long foreplay today. “You should have told me,” he sulked, feeling the slightest bit petty. “I’ve been a little busy, but if you feel like that come and get me, okay? So no wasting anymore!” Later he’d feel shy and embarrassed about saying that, but it felt right in the moment.

Looking down at Seungkwan as if he couldn’t quite believe his luck, Hansol moved to rest on him again, tongue plunging into his mouth and hands spreading his legs for a good, solid grind into his boyfriend. “Remember you said that,” he whispered between smacking, hungry kisses. “Remember you said that, Kwannie.”

* * *

Jisoo watched, put out, as Jeonghan wandered off to go and look for his husband, and he lifted his head to rub at his forehead and the incipient headache gathering there. The intense atmosphere over the last few days had been exhausting; it was no wonder that Seungkwan had looked so worn trying to keep everything together. It had made things worse that Seokmin had been off on one of his frequent patrols; his body was humming with need now that it had gotten used to a partner again.

He thanked his lucky stars that he wasn’t remotely close to broody, sulking Jihoon-ah. The littlest member of the extended family hadn’t even come down today, choosing instead to have a sleep in; Soonyoung had long since come to fetch the babies before Chan had been summoned to the roost as well, ostensibly for another history lesson.

Jisoo’s lips quirked slightly at the thought of Jeonghan’s youngest. He had inherited all of his dad’s sweetness but buried it under a wide, bratty streak, which made him very fond of the little blighter. Not fond enough that he’d brave the bedroom upstairs to rescue him, of course. He turned to look out the window, boggled at the speed with which Hansol ran across the lawn towards the wood, and rolled his eyes expressively.

Pulling out his phone, he called a number he never had before, forehead sinking down on his arms.

“Baby?” Seokmin’s rich voice came after a moment. “Is everything okay back at the house? I’m almost done with the northern circuit.”

Jisoo let out a long sigh. “Everything’s okay,” he said at length. “I’m just irritated and grumpy. I was having such a nice conversation with Hannie, and the Seungcheol had to drag him away. Who even heard of a morning quickly?” he mumbled. “Disgusting.”

Seokmin’s laugh sounded soft but fond. “Remember what happened last time you had a conversation with him? It ended up in five bottles of wine and carousing; not that I minded, you have a lovely voice.”

Jisoo’s insides heated a little with fondness. “This from you. Shut up and pity me instead.”

The laugh came again. “Okay, I’m sorry. I’m pitying you, I promise. Don’t blame your friend, alright? It’s not purely his fault; with the Chinese _hyungdeul_ … attempting to enjoy themselves, that tension’s communicated to the others in the proto-nest.”

“That is not a thing,” Jisoo mumbled into his phone. “Tell me it’s not a thing.”

“It’s a thing. Mainly to do with safety in numbers, and societal pressure. You see, what happens is that the elders doing their thing places a kind of permissiveness in the air – a love glow, if you will? Other vampires can feel that and they go along with it.”

Jisoo stared at the wood inches from his nose, cross-eyed and fascinated despite himself. “You’re _kidding_ me. What kind of Anne Rice erotica bull is that? You can’t be serious!”

Seokmin’s laugh burst free, sounding rich and happy. “Yes, I’m kidding you. Don’t worry, I don’t know why they’re like this either. I had to give the eastern and southern quarters a wide birth today, what with Hansol’s parents there. You think Jeonghan’s loud? Wait until you hear them.”

“Ugh,” Jisoo grunted. “I don’t know why I believe you when you say these outrageous things.”

“You’re too serious,” Seokmin rebutted. “Speaking of which… turn around.”

Blinking, Jisoo straightened and turned around. His eyes widened as he saw Seokmin perching on the balcony outside like a bird, balancing easily. Ending the call, he went to wrestle the heavy window open and leant out to glare at him despite the sweet smile he got in return. “I am _not_ too serious,” he rebutted.

Seokmin wiggled a hand. “Sometimes not, like when you’re blind drunk and trying to remember how many bottles of beer remained on the wall,” he teased. “Other times, you’re far too serious. Life a little.” Getting down from the balcony, he pulled himself in through the window and closed it again, working his shoulders to get the tightness out of him. “Did you want to leave the house for an evening? Just to get a little break? There are a couple of hotels around here that we can go and eat at.”

Jisoo paused, considering the idea. He _had_ brought nice clothes with him, things suited to an evening out; not only that but it bothered him that he was starting to think like the staid uncle of this extended household. Biting his lip, he reached to snaffle fingertips into Seokmin’s shirt, slowly pulling him closer by it. “That’s not a bad idea,” he said huskily. “Dinner at a nice place, and perhaps a room as well? A room with a hot tub with those nice jacuzzi jets? You’re so creative in bathrooms.”

Seokmin swallowed and freed the hand from his shirt, gently kissing first the knuckles, then the fingertips with delicate little kisses. “I would love nothing more,” he said solemnly. “I guess the only question is… who gets to top?”

Jisoo’s grin spread roguishly. “Whoever finds the hotel first, of course,” and dived for his phone.

* * *

The library’s fire crackled gently deep into the evening, shedding gentle light over the room; it was still cold enough deep at night for it to be comfortable, and it created a warm, cozy environment for the youngest three adults in the household.

Hansol sat crosswise on the settee, feet dressed in lurid orange socks as he browsed on his phone, back braced comfortably against one arm. Across from him, dividing the table between them, sat Seungkwan and Chan; Chan had a small furrow between his eyebrows as he studied for exams, reference books stacked three high on his side. Seungkwan had a book stand on his side, but pride of place was a laptop he had gotten for his birthday that year, sleek pale gunmetal that he was avidly staring at as he typed furiously.

“…so I use the open model?” Chan asked into the silence, still scribbling on a piece of paper already covered with tiny equations and page numbers.

“Closed models are only used for…?” Seungkwan queried, not looking up from his laptop as he added a list of citations to the bottom of his document.

Chan drew a breath, eyes momentarily distant. “Leontief distinguishes the closed model as the entire production being consumed by internal industries, meaning nothing is available to external bodies,” he chanted and blinked. “Right. So the estates’ model has to be open because a lot of the industries we have inside are set up to be consumed by external demand, like the tourism portions and the dairies and so on. Thanks, Seungkwanie.”

Seungkwan shot him a quick grin.

Jun watched the scene from the door of the study, unnoticed so far. It was exceptionally domestic for the three; with Chan in the midst of his fourth year of university and Seungkwan hard at work on his master’s, it was only really Hansol that had free time, and he was so chill he didn’t mind hanging out whilst they studied, but still snuck the occasional fond look at his boyfriend’s bent head.

It did him good to see them. He loved the babies, but he loved this age group even more, especially when Hansol roared at his jokes and Seungkwan rolled his eyes feelingly, or when Chan joined him for the morning exercises he did every morning. Tilting his head thoughtfully, he finally decided to follow his original plan; ten minutes later, arriving with a round of mugs, he placed them down on coasters. “Break time,” he announced. “Before your eyes grow square.”

Seungkwan’s cheeks rounded with a pout, but he saved his document with good enough grace, moving to take the fat-bellied sun-printed mug that had become ‘his’ in the household. Chan required a little more prompting, but stopped when Junhui flicked him with long fingernails. When he straightened Hansol was already there with two extra chairs, poking through the biscuit plate on the tray, separating the chocolate biscuits from the rest.

“Thanks, _hyung_ ,” he muttered as he stuffed a plain biscuit into his mouth, consuming it whole before taking a sip of tea.

Junhui didn’t think he realised he had nudged the chocolate biscuits over to Seungkwan, and the habit made him smile. “I thought you three could help me with something,” he said as he sat down, passing Chan his tea to make the young vampire stop pouting about the mandated break. “I heard you asking about my nails the other morning during our exercises, Channie. Are you still curious?”

Chan blinked and nodded, looking at one of Jun’s hands and the two-inch nails on it. “Actually, yeah?” he muttered. “I remembered we were doing those exercises, and I thought they would get in the way but they didn’t?” He snaffled a biscuit to nibble on it, eyes rounding with curiosity as Jun reached into a pocket to bring out a small box. “I still don’t know why you don’t just cut them, they must get in the way so much.”

Jun looked from the youngest to Seungkwan, then Hansol, and hitched his eyebrows to invite opinions.

“They’re status symbols, right?” Seungkwan asked as he leant forward to look at them, hands wrapped around his mug. “I’ve read somewhere that it used to be a custom in the old days to say that you didn’t have to work, or something like that? But I thought it was just a few of them, not the whole hand. How _do_ you manage tying your shoes with those, or like… brush your teeth or something?”

“I don’t brush my teeth at all,” Jun said, just to relish the look of discreet horror on Seungkwan’s face. “I’m just kidding, Seungkwanie. You’re right, it used to be a status symbol and it still is, but then it would have been just a few on every hand. It’s half the answer. Hansol-ah?”

Hansol looked at one hand. “May I feel them?” he asked, and reached out to try and flick one as Jun nodded. “Weapons?” he asked curiously. “What did you put on them to make them that hard?”

Jun suffered one hand being examined curiously, holding his fingers still as Seungkwan and Chan examined them as well, trying futilely to make even one nail break. “Weapons of a last resort,” he murmured approvingly at Hansol. “Like your wolves have claws, yes? As Minghao-ge’s consort, I had a certain standing in the community, but I could have merely grown out my ring fingers and pinkies, and that would have been enough.”

Chan stared at the hand with fascination. “So… they’re literally telling people that you’re high-born? And I guess they’d think that you wouldn’t risk your nails if they were status symbols, so they wouldn’t think ‘weapon’ right off the bat? But people don’t know about Minghao- _hyung_ these days, right? And I don’t think there’s a court any longer? Why keep all of them long?”

Jun lifted his gaze to Seungkwan; the young human’s touches had been the gentlest so far, and by the wobbly smile on his face he had guessed part of the answer at least. “Seungkwanie?” he asked. “Want to take a guess?”

“Is it like Jihoonie- _hyung_ and the doors?” Seungkwan asked. At Jun’s nod, he breathed in. “Jihoonie- _hyung_ doesn’t like it when Soonyoung- _hyung_ opens doors for him,” he explained to the other two. “But he puts up with it because he knows that Soonyoung- _hyung_ means to respect him by it, and he cares enough not to want to make Soonyoung- _hyung_ feel bad about doing it.”

“Exactly,” Jun said softly. “You’re right, Chan, technically we’re not in the old days at court anymore, and I’m not in China. Still, those days were important to Minghao-ge; he was the brother of an emperor even with the entire court long since dust. I was honoured when he bestowed his affections on me, and grew them out in honour of that.” He clicked his nails together. “They’re a visible sign that I honour his history, even if it does make it difficult at times to pull my socks up.”

Hansol took another cookie. “Like my father moved to Venice because my dad likes the atmosphere and art there, even though he despises it when there are so many people around him.”

“Oh,” Chan muttered. “Makes me kind of glad I’m not in a relationship. There’s too much of that going on around here anyway.”

Jun laughed out loud at that. “Well, maybe you’re the only sane one. But I wanted to ask you three to help me, because it’s become time to cut these.” He clicked his nails together again. “Body parts are sacred, and wizards could do a lot with cast-off nails or the like, so it was generally done in the company of family to make sure that all the pieces were safely disposed of, or saved. Save Minghao-ge, you three are the closest I have here to family, so… would you help, please?”

Chan frowned. “But you literally just said that you wore them to honour him and so on! Why are you saying you want to cut them now?”

Jun nodded solemnly, though he wanted to smile. “I have my reasons. One, Minghao-ge and I talked, and we decided to set our history in China aside and move into a new direction here. A fresh start, if you will. Secondly…wait. Has your father had the birds and the bees talk with you yet?”

Chan closed his eyes as if he was praying for patience. “I’m ninety-eight,” he got out. “Not nine. _Yes_ _hyung_ , I’ve gotten the talk. Twice. I’m an adult, not a child.”

“Ah. Well then you should understand the reason.”

Chan looked confused, and silence stretched.

Hansol was looking at the distant wall of books, trying not to laugh; when Seungkwan leant closer to whisper into Chan’s ear Jun watched with great delight as the youngest flushed with embarrassment from the bridge of his nose to his ears, colour rolling down his throat.

“No! Ew _hyung_ , that’s so nasty! That’s… not right!” he gargled out, pushing back from the table. “You can’t just make it sound… sound noble like that and then tell me it’s for a sex reason!”

Jun clicked his hails at him like a crab, grinning like a villain, and Hansol nearly fell off his chair with laughter as Chan thudded his head against the table, arms coming to cover the red flush of his neck.

Seungkwan grinned, patted Chan’s shoulder once and took another sip of tea. “But Minghao- _hyung_ will still be of high birth,” he said. “And I don’t know, but I think you would still like to honour that right? What will you do instead?”

Jun hummed in agreement and reached to open the box that he had brought out, showing them the contents. Inside, made of grass-green jade meticulously carved and ritualistically marked, lay a full set of finger protectors. “These. It’s one of the only things I’ve bothered to bring from China. It was his wedding gift to me. Now, will you help me cut and dispose of my nails?”

“Sure thing, _hyung_ ,” Hansol mumbled as he finished his tea.

Seungkwan’s eyes narrowed at him over still-flushed Chan. “And can we then have the conversation about you being nice to him?” he asked. “Because Minghao- _hyung_ means a lot to me.”

Jun’s smile broadened to the widest it’s been all night. “Sure,” he said happily. “I’d love to have that chat, he’s not had little brothers in _forever_. But I warn you, I bite. Bring your best arguments!”

* * *

Jihoon had distantly known what was involved in giving birth. He had been through school biology after all, and not for a moment had he expected the bomb that hit when Jeonghan knocked on the door of the little home gymnasium Soonyoung had built him. He was on the treadmill, desperately trying to walk off the faintly bloated feeling he had, so only lifted a hand to wave him in as he reached for the display, kicking it up a notch or two.

“You are the fittest pregnant person I know,” Jeonghan said flatly as he slinked past the exercise machines to flop onto a little chair close to him. “I don’t know where you get this exercise habit from, but it’s not from _me_.”

Jihoon flicked him a look. “From your daughter,” he said astringently. “Not only that, but I want to build some muscle up before things start slowing down. Not that you can _tell_ I have abs underneath all this.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve seen the muscles in your legs and arms. You’re as bad as Joshuji.” Jeonghan thoughtfully considered him. “Are you ready for the birth? The time’s fast approaching; how do you feel about sex?”

Jihoon grimaced at the frank question, breath puffing. He took a moment to get his stride back – he hated how much slower he was going – and shrugged. “Not really. The most I’m in the mood for these days is a backrub. We’ve been doing other things, not really sex. He’s stopped biting me too, but he’s still feeding me blood regularly. For all that he’s soft, he’s a hard-ass sometimes.” He grimaced and wiped at the sweat on his forehead.

Jeonghan shook his head. “It’s ideal that he doesn’t drink from you. You don’t want to worry about how that stresses your body on top of what the babies want.” He pressed his lips together. “There are no hard and fast rules when you’re a guy,” he said frankly. “The time I went through this with Sebastian and Sophie, it was absolutely dreadful. There was blood everywhere; Seungcheol was so on edge he broke Mrs. Morecombe’s arm when she tried to give me laudanum. It was easier with Chan, and with Minseok and Eleanor, because I knew what to expect, and even then it frightened me.”

Boggling, Jihoon slowed the treadmill down more. “Why did you have to even worry about him?” he asked. “Soonyoung wants to be there, he says he wants to hold my hand.”

The look that Jeonghan gave him was very gentle. “Jihoonie,” he said softly. “I have to ask… how do you think you’re actually going to give birth? I know you know intellectually, but have you considered what it meant?”

The question rocked Jihoon, made him realise that with everything that had happened, he hadn’t really thought about it. “I thought at home like you did, with Sophie in attendance?”

“Well,” Jeonghan said. “Not to be indelicate, but someone is going to be cutting your stomach open with a very small, very sharp knife. You’re going to bleed and you’re going to hurt because there simply aren’t strong enough drugs that you can take that won’t hit to the babies... Soonyoung is going to go off his rocker. The only reason my latter pregnancies were easier was because Sebastian was there to keep him restrained and out of the room.” His nose wrinkled. “That, and the quality of the knives have grown better.”

Stumbling, Jihoon hastily reached to stop the treadmill, getting off with shivering legs. He knew he was working himself up, he could practically _feel_ his blood pressure spike. “What?” he managed to get out. “He goes bonkers?”

Jeonghan shook his head. “Totally off his rocker. Somehow despite going through this numerous times, he still does not quite get the fact that I don’t have a vagina and whilst I might get pregnant from his super-sperm mixed with a little adaptational biology, anything other than a C-section is out.” He sighed. “Have you decided who you want in there?”

Feeling faint, Jihoon sank down on an exercise bench. “I…” His mouth shut, then opened, then shut again. “I… you?” He swallowed to wet his suddenly dry throat. “And Seungkwanie maybe, if he’s okay with that. And Sophie?” His mind spun. “Sorry… you went through this three times?”

Jeonghan considered him. “No,” he finally said. “By the time the first twins showed up, we had been trying for just about two hundred years. There were… there were a few failures before they happened. You recover physically of course, the blood sees to that, but you don’t recover psychologically, and sometimes no matter how hard you try, how hard your husband tries, things go wrong. The first few times… well, he had to help me deal with the outcome.”

Jihoon stared and stared, trying to make sense of the mess in his mind. “How many times?” he finally asked, voice very soft. “How… how many times?”

Jeonghan stood and walked to him, reaching to touch his hair gently, then his shoulder. “Seven times. The first four times were… well. So it’s your choice, but I’d think about it.”

All desire Jihoon had for exercise fled. Nodding dumbly, he made to get his things and left, making for his bedroom. Soonyoung found him there an hour later, phone on his lap as he sat in the empty tub, eyes focused on the ceiling. The conversation with his mother had been horrific; she had been shocked and he had been afraid, and he had hyperventilated before his mother managed to talk him down. “My mother’s coming to stay in a week or so,” he said as he heard his husband’s familiar steps. “I hope you don’t mind.”

Soonyoung made for the edge of the bath, sitting down on it. “Of course not. This is your house too, Jihoonie. Your mother is always welcome.” He shifted to be able to look him in the eye, perching easily on the thin rim. “Do you want to tell me what Jeonghan said? He came to find me and said that he had upset you, but not what he had said.” He paused. “I’m afraid I yelled at him a little bit. I’ll have to go and apologise later.”

Focusing dully on his phone, Jihoon tried to find a way to start. “You know I love you,” he finally said.

“Yes?”

“And that the idea of our kids makes me happy, and that I’ve been mostly happy these last nine months?”

Soonyoung frowned. “Yes?”

Jihoon put the phone aside to stare up at him. “I didn’t think, I guess,” he admitted. “About how they were actually going to be born. He said that it had to be a C-section, and that I’d likely not want you in the room when it happens, because you’re going to go nuts that someone is cutting at me. And that it’s going to be painful for me.”

Soonyoung’s lips pressed together, nostrils flaring. “I…” He closed his mouth to clear his throat. “Okay, no. I’m not impressed by that idea. At _all_. But frankly, Jihoonie, I promised to stand by your side, okay? I will be there, and I will hold your hand and stand by you. All I need to control myself is Jihoonie, alright? I trust Sophie. She’s done well by us so far. I’ll hold your hand and you can scream as me as much as you need to and blame me, and I will _be there_.”

Jihoon stared at him through the thin, tight pounding in his forehead. “But… will you be able not to hurt Sophie?”

“Jihoon,” Soonyoung said very softly, reaching to place a hand on one knee. “You’re my anchor, baby. I’m not going to mess up the most important day of our lives, alright?” His nose wrinkled. “I’ll be there. Count on it.”

* * *

Jihoon frowned as he tried to find a comfortable place on the couch. There was no direction in which he could move that seemed comfortable, and the very thought grated at him with a kind of lingering, low-level irritation. He couldn’t even balance a laptop on his lap anymore, had already had to pee three times that morning alone, and had snapped at Mingyu when he tried to pinch his cheeks again.

About a half hour ago, totally losing his patience, he had threatened that the next person to disturb him would wake up without their balls. It had cleared everyone but Soonyoung from the room. His husband, being a wise man, had just fetched him an extra pillow and a blanket, and was puttering around on his PC trying to conceal the fact that he was planning some kind of party. Seeking silence, he had simply let him, and curled up on the settee.

Very carefully he turned on his left side, then his right. Nothing worked. He tried to sit up, which was too much of an effort, and resting on his back had only caused his belly to choke him.

For the fifth time in as many minutes he wriggled over into another position, glared at Soonyoung when he looked to check on him, and settled grumpily in a kind of half-on, half-off position. That… _that_ seemed to work, and he had just raked a book closer when the study door opened.

“What!” he yelled, but subsided as he saw Seungkwan peek past the door. Grimacing, he sighed and motioned him in – if there was one person he couldn’t yell at it was his Seungkwanie – and wiggled back onto the couch. The blanket, his arch-enemy, chose that moment to slide down his belly and onto the ground, and he grunted as he started to slide down to get it.

Seungkwan got there before him, bending easily to retrieve it as he handed Jihoon a huge mug filled with creamy hot chocolate. The foam looked to be at least an inch thick, studded with little bunny marshmallows.

Jihoon looked at it and tried not to cry from sheer gratitude. He swallowed and took the mug, then took Seungkwan’s hand as well, tugging him down on the settee for something to rest against “Sing?” he begged quietly. He gave a tiny, guilty peek over his shoulder at Soonyoung, brightened up when he saw his husband smile hugely, and turned back to snuggle into the curve of Seungkwan’s warm body. Closing his eyes, he fell to sipping and listening; oddly, it made the pain in his back disappear as well, and he heaved a great sigh of relief.

“I’m going to… go and make sure we have enough milk,” Soonyoung murmured, scooting away from the table. He came to drift a kiss over Jihoon’s pouty, chocolate-stained mouth, mouthed a ‘Thank you’ to Seungkwan and hastened out of the room.

Jihoon waited one beat, then two after the door closed. “He’s not subtle, is he?” he winced, moving a leg wrong and getting a cramp for it.

Seungkwan’s singing broke off with a burble of laughter. “Give him a break, _hyung_ , he’s really trying his best, okay?” He paused. “I had a dream last night,” he shared softly. “It was that meadow down by the lake… by the church? I was walking there and a tiger came out to play with me. It was really cute! It was tiny and very furry and cute, and it was trying to pounce on a butterfly… but the butterfly wasn’t real, it looked to have been made from opal? Its wings shone really brightly in the sun.” He paused. “It didn’t make sense until I thought it might have been _taemong_. Do you think so?”

“Sounds like,” Jihoon said into his mug. “I mean, it might be, but I never really paid much attention to that myself. Sounds like an auspicious one in any case.” He nudged Seungkwan in the side with his elbow, giving tiny little jabs until he moved enough that Jihoon could sink into a twisted position that was surprisingly pain-free. “is everyone angry at me for yelling?” he asked guiltily.

“No,” Seungkwan assured him. “No one’s angry with you, I promise. But Minghao- _hyung_ did ask if I could ask you if he could see you, when he saw me making this.” He paused. “I said I would ask, but it might be important?”

Jihoon slurped up one of the tiny bunnies and chewed it with relish. “Was it just him, or that very boisterous mate of his as well. Because I draw the line at Wen Junhui’s jokes right now.”

“ _Hyung_!” Seungkwan protested, half-laughing. “No, it was just Minghao- _hyung_.”

Another slurp, another bunny. “I guess,” Jihoon said at length. “But he’s going to have to sit somewhere else, I just got comfortable.”

Seungkwan didn’t need to call; between one breath and the next the ancient vampire stood with them, dressed in a sweater and jeans combo that managed to look effortlessly designer-made. “No worry,” he said quietly. “I not sit, just check something.” He peered at Jihoon for permission, then rested his hand on the fat, round curve of his belly. His eyes half-lidded, but his mouth curved slow seconds later. “You phone doctor,” he said. “She come now. Babies ready to be babies, they ask nicely to be let out. Not ask so nicely in another hour.”

“What?” Seungkwan said. “But he still has two more weeks, we have that thing…” He trailed off guiltily, peeked at Jihoon, and looked up at Minghao again. “You’re sure, _hyung_?”

Jihoon’s eyes bulged open. After that horrifying talk with Jeonghan, he had thought he still had two weeks to try and get used to things. Now… “You’re sure?” he echoed, sitting up as quickly as he could.

“Oh yes,” Minghao confirmed. “Thought so earlier, but could not get clean look.” He tilted his head. “Junhui calling others. You call doctor now and get to bed.” Stepping closer, he gently slid his arms in beneath Jihoon’s body, lifting him as gently as thistledown on the wind. “Good aim,” he said cheerfully. “Very auspicious day today.”

Blanching, Seungkwan jumped to pull the mug out of Jihoon’s hands and raced out the door, screaming for Soonyoung.

Pressing his eyes shut, Jihoon started praying; anger drained from him like bathwater, and fear slowly filled his heart instead.

* * *

Later, after the most difficult five hours of his life, Jihoon lay panting on the bed as he clung to Soonyoung’s hand. The C-section had been awful – he had called him everything under the sun and invented a few more – but now, as he drifted in the haze of painkillers that he was allowed now that they were out, he thought rather woozily that his husband had been magnificent. Far from panicking, he had simply followed the orders Sophie had given them, and helped him in between.

It hadn’t been just two minutes, it had been closer to twenty since Sophie had insisted being extremely careful with her cuts since the babies were squirming determinately, but the result had been more than worth it, and Soonyoung had been with him every step of the way.

He grimaced as Soonyoung stuffed pillows behind his back to help him up, and reached out with greedy arms as his mother passed him his two first-borns. Seungkwan was hovering as well, eyes misty with tears and ready with their first feed, and behind him Jeonghan, Minghao and Sophie conferred quietly.

“What are their names?” his mother asked as she settled the babies in the crook of Jihoon’s arms.

Though they were each in identical little green blankets with purple dinosaurs printed on them, they were easy to tell apart. “This is Jimin,” Jihoon said softly as he lifted the arm with the largest of the two. “Written with the hanja for purpose and jade… if only because of the way he kept on kicking to get out the last day.” He grinned sloppily down at his boy, who was already inhaling to begin crying before he looked at the smaller of the two. For a fraction of a second he thought he could see the aura that Minghao often spoke of. “And she’s Iseul, for the morning dew on plants.”

“Beautiful,” his mother said solemnly as Jihoon lifted the babies to let Soonyoung have his turn. It was over in a second, just a tiny dab of blood on each furled mouth; he laughed when Jimin bit his husband with tiny baby gums. Iseul accepted it without problems, sneezed promptly in his face and went to sleep.

Soonyoung groused as he rescued his finger and kissed each baby on the pate before handing them back to Jihoon.

“Kwannie?” he called, smiling as Seungkwan jittered closer with two bottles, looking like the cat that had caught the canary.

Seungkwan scooted onto the bed next to him with more eagerness than grace, and his hands shook as he handed over the bottles. “They’re so pretty!” he said greedily, plucking swaddling blankets a little tighter around them. “I can still carry them, right? When we go out to present them to everyone else?”

Jihoon swallowed slowly. “You go,” he said tiredly, keeping Soonyoung to himself. He watched them leave, babies and all, before he closed his eyes to stop tired tears from falling.

Soonyoung said nothing, merely got into the bed at his side, very gently curving close to share his body heat. One hand settled on Jihoon’s hip, careful to avoid the surgical site, and started to rub in gentle circles. “Have I told you today that I love you?” he murmured. “But I should have known that you’d get the last word in on the kitchen tea issue. Inconsiderate, Jihoonie, I had a bouncing castle planned, and some nice gifts…”

Jihoon huffed tiredly, exhaling as the painkillers started to work. Sophie had been very close-mouthed about what was in them, but they were roaring through his system like a truck. “You did, about five times in the last hour alone,” he muttered. “Still glad that you scraped out from underneath that tree four years ago?”

Bending to kiss his forehead, Soonyoung’s smile was warm against his skin. “Best decision of my life,” he said softly. “And I love you more now than five minutes ago. You’re my Christmas miracle, Jihoonie. Are _you_ sorry you stayed?”

With the cessation of pain, Jihoon’s tongue began to slur. “No,” he managed to whisper out. “But let’s not do that again too soon. Will you… will you look after them whilst I sleep?”

“Of course,” Soonyoung murmured, and pulled back to watch the most precious thing in his life fall asleep. He’d go and coo over the babies presently. For the moment… for the moment, he could lie here and be grateful for his Jihoonie stumbling into his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   * And here we are at the end. There are a few bits and pieces I cut because this was dragging on, like some of the sex scenes. 
>   * If anyone still doesn't understand why Jun cut his nails, DM me on Twitter and I'll try to explain. 
>   * Thank you so much for all your kind words regarding these! I had never planned to have more than two one-shots, but I'm glad so many people liked this universe. 
> 


**Author's Note:**

>   * For an idea of what Siddeley Park looks like, please see [Lyme Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_Park), which some older fans might recognise as Pemberley from the 1195 BBC Pride and Prejudice. 
>   * Jihoon's collar was inspired by [this one](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/UvUAAOSwrMhck2sX/s-l400.jpg). 
> 



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